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Department of Electronic Engineering (UPM)
Doctorate in Electronic Systems Engineering (RD 99/2011)

Tutorial Action

Support and guidance systems for students once enrolled

The Doctorate in “Electronic Systems Engineering” (DISE) was conceived in such a way as to provide students with an adequate learning environment that favors and stimulates the initiative and autonomous training work of the student, the development of a strong critical spirit, as well as the development of habits of professionalism, quality research and teamwork. Within the framework of developing this welcoming environment within the University family, a Tutorial Action Plan for Support and Guidance has been launched.

Action Plan Support and Guidance Tutorial

This plan is aimed at new students at the UPM, coming from other Universities, and its main objective is to facilitate the functioning of the University, the School and the Department of Electronic Engineering for new Master’s and Doctorate students, particularly, emphasizing the different services available and those they should contact to resolve the different types of problems that may arise.

The plan will also include the training of teachers so that they can guide and direct the students and the services of the institutions involved that can respond to the problems that arise at all times.

Within the framework of the Support and Guidance Tutorial Action Plan, each student is assigned a Tutor from the moment they are admitted to the Program. Therefore, every student will be supported by a Tutor, a professor from the Department, who will be responsible for conducting the student’s activities and validating the selection of subjects and work, ensuring their training coherence through continuous monitoring of their activities and achievement.

The Tutor will meet with the student at the beginning of the course and will advise them on the choice of subjects appropriate to the student’s profile, their main research interests and their abilities. The Tutor will follow the student’s evolution within the program and will constantly advise them. In the later stages of completing the Doctorate, the functions of the Tutor will be assumed by the Thesis Director, once the training period is concluded. To ensure effective and efficient Tutoring, efforts will be made to ensure that each Professor of the Department of Electronic Engineering is a Tutor for only one student per course.

Reception and orientation day

At the beginning of each course, a welcome and orientation day will be organized for new students. During this event the program coordinator will present the program and the teaching staff to the new students. Specifically, they will be presented:

  1. The structure and organization of the Master’s and Doctorate studies. During this session, students will have the opportunity to request additional information about the program, clarify possible doubts, etc.
  2. The Department’s research groups. Representatives of all the research groups involved in the program will be present at the day, who will briefly and summarized present the activities of their corresponding groups, and the possible thesis topics that the students could carry out.

During this day, the assignment of Tutors to the students will be carried out according to the Tutorial Action Plan for Support and Guidance.

Thesis supervisor assignment procedure

To prepare the doctoral thesis, the academic committee of the doctoral program will assign the doctoral student a thesis director, who will be a doctor from the PDI linked to the program or an external doctor, as long as he or she meets the criteria of the doctoral program and the UPM regulations for the assignment of a thesis director. The doctoral thesis may be co-directed by another doctor, at the request of the Academic Commission of the Doctoral Program to the Doctoral Commission of the UPM. In any case, the doctoral thesis will have a maximum of two directors. This assignment will be made between the professors of the line of research, by mutual agreement between the student and the director, in accordance with the training and research objectives that the student wishes to develop.

Procedure for monitoring the student’s work in the research phase

The monitoring of the student’s work will be carried out in the first instance by the director or directors, who will manage the day-to-day work of the student’s research. Secondly, the research group in which the Doctoral Thesis is carried out will provide direct support to the Doctoral student, continuously supporting the research carried out. Furthermore, the research seminars that have been scheduled include the presentation of the work carried out by each doctoral student to the rest of the Program’s researchers.

Additionally, in this Doctoral Program, annual reports will be required from all students who are in the research phase. These reports will reflect the current status of their research, the progress that has been made in the topic being addressed and the results obtained in the last year. They must also be written in English. An annual progress report will be submitted to the UPM Doctoral Commission.

Foreign students

The Support and Guidance Tutorial Action Plan includes special sessions dedicated to foreign students. These sessions, in addition to the general functioning of the University, will provide detailed information about the academic structure that supports the mobility program: information about the academic manager, the International Office and the Directorates of Relations with Latin America and the Rest of the World of the Vice-Rectorate of International Relations of the UPM, the assigned Tutor, etc.

Improvement actions linked to student satisfaction

A survey will be conducted among students during the first half of the academic year, in which they will be asked about their degree of satisfaction with:

  1. The quality of the information disseminated about the program prior to enrollment and its adaptation to the reality found in the course
  2. The process of pre-enrolment, registration and the orientation and reception days
  3. The transparency of the admission and selection process
  4. The Action Plan Tutorial for Support and Guidance
  5. The teaching received, the teaching material and its adaptation to the expected level of studies
  6. The level of teaching experience and the teaching performance of the teaching staff

The information received will be analyzed by the Quality Commission and the Postgraduate Studies Management Commission, which will issue a report addressed to the DIE Directorate, the ETIST Directorate and the Postgraduate Vice-Rector’s Office, establishing improvement actions.