Abstract:

Doctoral education is a major focus of university strategies and it is therefore necessary to identify and analyze the different aspects that contribute to its quality. The University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), in particular, is a generalist university with a number of doctoral students close to 4000 in recent years. Thus, the opinion of students on the doctoral education they receive is a very important tool for making progress in improving the quality of the process. In the case of the UPV/EHU, this training is articulated through 66 doctoral programs distributed in 5 areas of knowledge:
1) Sciences,
2) Engineering and Architecture,
3) Health Sciences,
4) Social and Legal Sciences and
5) Arts and Humanities.

The trajectories of the different doctoral programs at the University of the Basque Country are very diverse since historically the different areas of knowledge have developed in different contexts. Specifically, the area of Sciences at the University of the Basque Country is the one in which the greatest number of theses are defended (around 30% on average in recent years) but the number of students is around 23%.

On the other hand, a national Spanish law (RD99/2011) established more than 10 years ago the basis for a homogeneous doctoral training both in the different areas and throughout the national territory. It is therefore interesting to know whether this law homogenization has been transferred to doctoral training. Thus, this paper analyzes the perception of UPV/EHU students about their doctoral training, focusing on the field of Sciences.

The methodology is based on student surveys that have collected their opinion on six dimensions:
1) training activities and follow-up sessions,
2) supervisors,
3) resources for study and research,
4) management of the doctoral program,
5) ethics and
6) self-evaluation.

The results show several specificities related to the area of Sciences of knowledge.

Keywords:

Doctoral education, student survey, homogeinity, areas of knowldge.