Perfil de ingreso y criterios de admisión Doctorado en Biología Vegetal

The University of Murcia Regulations from the Rector Resolution 42/2012, of 6 February, Article 7, establishes the following admission criteria for the doctoral programme:

  1. The provisions of Article 6 of the second additional disposition of the Royal Decree 99/2011, of 28 January, establish the requirements to access a doctoral programme: applicants must have an Official Spanish Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) and a master’s degree.
  2. Applicants who are in any of the following cases may also be admitted:
    1. Have an official Spanish university degree, or that of another country belonging to the European Higher Education Area, giving access to a master’s degree programme according to that stipulated in Article 16 of Royal Decree 1393/2007, of 29 October, and have passed a minimum of 300 ECTS of official university studies, of which, at least 60 must be at master's degree level.
    2. Have an official Spanish Graduate Diploma containing, according to EU law, at least 300 ECTS. These graduates must compulsorily complete the training supplements referred to in article 7.2 of Royal Decree 99/2011, unless the syllabus of the corresponding degree includes credits in research training that are equivalent in training value to research credits in master's programmes.
    3. University graduates who, after obtaining a training place in the corresponding test to access specialised health training, have successfully passed at least two years training in a programme to obtain the official title of one of the specialities in Health Sciences.
    4. Have a qualification obtained in accordance with foreign education systems, it need not be officially recognised, the General Doctorate Committee will verify that this qualification accredits a training level equivalent to that of the official Spanish Master's degree and gives access to doctoral studies in the country where it was issued. This admission does not imply, in any case, the official recognition of a student’s previous degrees nor its recognition for purposes others than accessing doctoral education.
    5. Be in possession of another Spanish title of doctor obtained according to previous university regulations.

Applicant profile

The ideal candidates to be admitted in this doctoral programme are those who comply with the following:

  • To be interested in Plant Biology research.
  • To be interested in environmental topics.
  • To be enterprising and innovative.
  • To decision-making skills.
  • To have an intermediate level of English.
  • To have basic knowledge regarding genetics, biochemistry and plant physiology. 
  • To be able to carry out bibliographic searches; design; conduct and interpret experiments; and write a scientific report in which all the results obtained must be included.

Depending on the applicant’s previous studies, there are two applicant profiles:

Profile 1: Applicants holding an Official Master’s degree in Biotechnology and Plant Stress Biology at the University of Murcia. 

For further information about the master (in Spanish), please click on the following link: http://www.um.es/web/biologia/contenido/estudios/masteres/biologia-plantas    

Profile 2: Applicants holding a bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) in Biology, Environmental Sciences, Biochemistry, Biotechnology, Pharmacology, Agricultural of Forestry Engineering, or another similar degree, who have taken a master’s degree, and have the following skills and prior knowledge:

  1. Know how to apply plant biotechnology techniques and how to apply them in order to improve plant production. 
  2. Know how to apply physiological, biochemical and cellular techniques to analyse oxidative stress.
  3. Know the different types of stress and the response of plants to stress, as well as how to apply methods to assess the stress status of plants.
  4. Be able to identify the reasons and consequences of abiotic stress which are harmful for the production of species of agricultural interest, as well as to be able to design methodological strategies to improve tolerance.
  5. Know the basic foundations of plant-pathogen interactions that cause diseases (fungi, bacteria and viruses).

Admission criteria

Applicants must fit into one of the two entry profiles, established according to the student’s previous training. The Academic Committee may require applicants form profile 2 to take some training complements if they do not have all the abilities and knowledge detailed in said profile. As far as public prices and scholarships are concerned, those academic complements will be considered as PhD level training.

The Academic Committee of the PhD programme will choose the applicants following these criteria:

  1. Assessment of academic report (70 %)
  2. Especially relevant merits related to the PhD programme chosen by the applicant (10 %)
  3. Adequacy of applicants to join one of the programme specific research lines (20 %)

The Academic Committee can admit part-time students so that students can balance studies, work, and family. For that purpose, the applicants must justify why they need to apply for a part-time enrolment.

The admission list will be published on the TOUM (Virtual Bulletin Board) of the University of Murcia. Rector resolution may be used to establish other means of publishing the admission list.

The regulations and instructions for admissions and enrolment in the University of Murcia that are approved for each academic year will be applicable to the admissions procedure.

In the event of students with special educational needs derived from a disability, the selection and admissions systems and procedures will include the relevant support and advisory services, which will evaluate the need for possible syllabus, itenerary adaptations or alternatvie studies.

Students with Special Educational Needs

Article 8 of the Doctorate Regulations of the University of Murcia states that in the event of students with special educational needs derived from a disability, the selection and admissions systems and procedures will include the relevant action to favour, as far as possible, equality in the access conditions and integration in all aspects. To do so, the Service of Attention to Diversity and Volunteers (ADV) will evaluate the need for possible syllabus adaptations.

Number of available places: 25