International Doctorate (double degree or joint degree)

The International doctorate is structurally different from national doctorates and organises the set of activities related to the selection, training and evaluation of doctorate students, in adherence to a scientific-training project adequately prepared and motivated. The joint doctorate thus requires the following stages:

  • Recognition of a transnational education need
  • Design and development
  • Fulfilment
  • Awarding of the degree
  • Institutive convention or bilateral agreement (on a specific individual)
  • Project developed in common with joint periods of training and research
  • Scheduled duration of stays; mobility
  • Detailed and common organisation (selections, Committee constitution, monitoring, final exam, degree assignment mode)
  • Joint final degree (or double degree)

For Joint doctorate to be validly established, it is necessary that the universities involved sign an agreement. The agreements must comply with the following principles:

  • the scientific project and the training plan, properly structured and motivated, will highlight the reasons that make it appropriate for the establishment of a joint doctorate;
  • although not expressly indicated, the Convention will be based, in relation to the training activities, preparation and evaluation of theses, on the principles and criteria laid down in the provisions related to doctorates in co-supervision and European label;
  • it is necessary to coordinate the programmes and allocate credits;
  • the educational activities take place at the premises concerned, indicating the courses, seminars etc., in order to ensure the commitment of the doctorate students in several locations;
  • the Board of Teachers must be composed of not less than ..... scholars, internationally known and with documented valid scientific works in the last five years, with a balanced presence of scholars belonging to the proposing venues; the presence of scholars of the ‘G. D’Annunzio’ University shall in no case be less than..... ;
  • the Coordinator, or the Scientific Director, will be elected by the Board or by the coordinating body under the Convention;
  • for admission procedures of the students, effective procedures must be provided for in order to guarantee an adequate assessment of the candidates on the basis of equality and non-discrimination; in particular, announcements must be published at least ..... months before execution of the admission tests on the website of the doctorate;
  • the conventions will indicate how the Admission committees must be composed; members are appointed by the participating institutions, and they can also not belong to them;
  • the final assessment commissions are composed of teachers appointed by the member Universities, although they can also not belong to them;
  • the Conventions cannot be valid for more than three years, and they are renewable.

Furthermore, in accordance with the provisions on the Doctorate in co-supervision, a thesis that includes a joint doctorate must meet the following additional conditions:

  • the appointment of one/two foreign teachers who do not belong to cooperating universities who will be requested a written report on the thesis;
  • the Examination Committee must include a member from a foreign university other than the cooperating ones;
  • the double or multiple degree is characterised by two or more degrees nationally recognised by the countries to which the institutions signing the agreement belong; Rectors will issue, upon request, the national degree in ways similar to those doctorates in co-supervision;
  • joint degree is a sole degree, issued jointly by at least two universities that offer an integrated study programme; this is particularly exacting, and requires the signatures of all Rectors concerned.

The instances related to establishing international doctorates, as well as the drafts of conventions for international cooperation, will be subject to the assessment of the Academic Bodies that will take into account the specificity of the aforementioned doctorates on the basis of the same criteria used for the proposal of ordinary doctorate regarding their scientific and educational validity.

The Senate approves, also, the text of the agreement to be signed with the universities concerned. Given the time it takes to elaborate and fulfil the conventions and procedures related to the internationalisation process at ministerial level, the proposals for international doctorate may be sent to the Academic Bodies at any time of the year.

The control and management of international doctorates may be adopted by the Academic Bodies notwithstanding the provisions of the University Regulations on Doctorate.