Doctoral Program in Civil Engineering
The Doctoral Program in Civil Engineering is a cross-cutting and interdisciplinary program organized around six major areas: Structural Engineering and Construction, Geotechnical Engineering, Water Engineering, Transportation Engineering and Infrastructure, Sustainability and Environmental Engineering and Computational Engineering.
The research period includes courses, seminars and activities of various kinds (experimental, theoretical, numerical, field...) that aim to achieve a solid and advanced research training that ends with the preparation and defense of a doctoral thesis on an innovative topic related to civil engineering. The research results are published in prestigious international journals.
The program is integrated into a setting that has all kinds of facilities to carry out research: laboratories, scientific calculation infrastructures, bibliographic bases, congress organization, etc.
The PhD in Civil Engineering enjoys all the quality and excellence awards from the Spanish Ministry of Education and the Catalan University Quality Assurance Agency.
Academic year
- Starts: October 1st
- Ends: September 30th
Duration
4 years (full-time) or 7 years (part-time)
Delivery
On-campus
Places
15
Official degree
Ph.D. Degree in Civil Engineering by the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (recorded in the Spanish Ministry of Education's degree register)
Dedication
When pre-enrolling to the degree, students must choose their dedication, which may be:
- Full-time
- Part-time
Fees
More information on fees & discounts
More information on grants
Academic coordinator
Secretariat
UPC-Campus Nord
Building C2, Room 202
Phone: +34 934 017 094
Email: doctorat.EC.camins@upc.edu
When?
Open all year choosing the course.
How?
- Check that you fulfill all admission requirements.
- Make sure all your documents are properly legalized.
Where?
On-line at UPC's pre-enrolment site.
Who assesses the applications?
The academic committee of the doctoral program is in charge of assessing and admitting the candidates.
- it prioritizes those applicants having the support of their thesis supervisor.
- Availability of scholarships or grants is essential.
When will I know if I have been admitted?
Within a month's time since the admission procedure started.
Document generated by this procedure
If you are admitted to the program, the Support Unit to Doctoral Studies of Barcelona School of Civil Engineering will issue the letter of admission.
New doctoral students
How?
On-site.
Where?
At the Support Unit to Doctoral Studies of Barcelona School of Civil Engineering.
Building C-2, 2nd floor
Room 202
08028 Barcelona
When?
- Ordinary call: From 1st till 25th October.
- Extraordinary call: From 1st till 28th February.
Documents generated by this procedure
- Enrolment form (e-Secretaria)
- Enrolment certificate (e-Secretaria)
Who monitors my work?
The academic committee of the doctoral program is in charge of monitoring the student's work yearly.
When?
- In the month of July. The director and the student will previously receive an email indicating how and when they will have to submit the documentation for the evaluation by the Academic Committee of the program.
ATTENTION:
Failing to submit the required documents will result in a FAIL score.
When will I know the result?
In September, when the Academic Committee issues the final results, students will receive an email to inform that the records are available at e-Secretaria.
Documents generated by the procedure
- Official academic record
What is it?
A research plan is a document that briefly defines the research activity that will take place and guides the student through the process. This document includes the Data Management Plan, which is a methodological document that describes the life cycle of data collected, generated and processed during a research project, a doctoral thesis, etc. It contains aspects concerning the acquisition, format, processing, storage, preservation and accessibility of research data.
Data Management Plan
More information
How do I write it?
- Template for all Ph.D. programes in the field of Civil and Environmental Engineering
When will I submit and defend my research plan?
During the 1st academic year, students must submit their research plan.
On the 2nd academic year, the plan is updated, if necessary, and then publicly defended in front of the assessing panel.
Public defences are scheduled within two calls:
- in June (for students that have enrolled for the first time in September).
- in February (for students that have enrolled for the first time in February's extraordinary call).
For specific dates, please contact the secretariat for each program.
What does the public defence entail?
The public defence consists of an oral exposition of the written Research Plan during no more than 20 minutes, followed by a 5-minute time for questioning or commenting on the part of the assessing panel. The mark will be either "Satisfactory" or "Non satisfactory”. In case of receiving a "Non satisfactory" mark, the Doctoral Commission can offer the student up to 6 months to make the necessary amends.
The assessing panel will consist of three doctors, two belonging to the Doctoral programme and a third one foreign to the programme. Neither the director of the thesis, nor the supervisor may be part of the panel.
The doctoral student's Personal Training Plan must contain a forecast of the different training activities that will be developed during the doctoral thesis (courses, seminars, mobility actions, etc.), some of which must be related to open science. The doctoral student must prepare, within a maximum period of one year from the first registration, the Personal Training Plan. Like the Research Plan, it must be endorsed by the director, co-director and academic tutor (if any), and they can be improved and detailed throughout the development of the program.
When?
Throughout the academic year.
ATTENTION:
The Support Unit to Doctoral Studies will not formalize thesis registrations on public or local holidays (which includes low-occupancy periods), Christmas break or summer holidays (from 22nd to 31st July). Theses registered before September 30th 2025 will be considered part of the 2024-2025 academic year
To apply for...
- A change to full- or part-time
- A change of thesis supervisor
- An extension
- A temporary withdrawal
Where?
Please, contact the secretariat of each program.
For information and procedures on...
- Co-supervisor
- Agreements
- Industrial doctorates
- Grants
- Mobility
- Legalization of documents
- Equivalences
Where?
Please visit the UPC's Doctoral School for more information.
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