Perfil de ingreso y criterios de admisión Doctorado en Ciencias Forenses (Interuniversitario)

Admission criteria (PhD programme in Forensic Science)

  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

There is only one general applicant profile to the doctoral programme in Forensic Science. Therefore, students holding an official qualification of master’s degree or equivalent and students interested in enhancing their academic training in the field of forensic science will be admitted into this programme.

Depending on the applicant’s profile, the Academic Committee will appoint the student a tutor and supervisor from the field of Forensic Science linked to their degrees. For instance:

  • Students holding a master’s degree in Forensic Science or similar will have a tutor and a director belonging to any field of Forensic Science depending on their degree in Sciences, Health Sciences, Social and Legal Sciences, Engineering and Architecture or Arts and Humanities.
  • Students holding a Science degree will have a tutor and supervisor belonging to fields such as Forensic Chemistry, Forensic Genetics, Forensic Anthropology, Forensic Botany or Forensic Entomology. 
  • Students holding a Health Sciences qualification will have a tutor and supervisor belonging to fields such as Forensic Medicine or Forensic Odontology.
  • Students holding a Social and Legal Sciences diploma will have a tutor and supervisor belonging to fields such as Criminalistics.
  • Students holding an Engineering and Architecture qualification will have a tutor and supervisor belonging to fields such as Forensic Computing or Fire investigation.
  • Students holding an Arts and Humanities diploma will have a tutor and supervisor belonging to fields such as Documents-copy.

 Applicants should have a high level of English -reading, speaking and writing- as the scientific advances in Forensic Science are written in this language.

Admission Criteria

Once the application has been checked to ensure it complies with all the admission requirements, the Academic Committee of this PhD programme will decide whether the applicant meets the admission criteria and fits the applicant profile.

In general, the academic record, English language skills and other merits will be taken into account as admission criteria. The admission criteria for part-time students will be the same as those for full-time students. Students will be selected according to the following criteria; they will need at least 50 points in order to be admitted to the programme.

Criterion No. 1. Academic record (up to 70 points).

  1. The average grade of the academic record will be calculated taking into account all the studies carried out to meet the requirements for admission to doctoral studies, including all subjects or credits obtained and not just those that are required.

The average grade of the bachelor’s degree -or equivalent- (X_1) and the average grade of the master’s degree (X_2), both to two decimal places, will be calculated separately. In each case, the number of credits per subject will be multiplied by the grade obtained, and subsequently the sum of the results in all subjects will be divided by the total number of credits.

The final grade will be obtained (also to two decimal places) as the weighted average by the number of credits from the average grade obtained in the bachelor’s degree and the average grade obtained in the master's degree. That is to say, it will be the result of (X_1 * G + X_2 * M) / (G + M) where G is the number of credits in the bachelor’s degree, and M is the number of credits taken in the master’s degree.

  1. If students do not hold a master's degree, but have completed doctoral courses in expiring programmes and have obtained the DAS degree (Diploma of Advanced Studies), a grade equivalent to the average grade of the master's degree will be obtained from the scores of these doctoral courses.
  2. The average grades of the degrees achieved by studying at two or more universities must contain all the subjects and credits the student obtained, with the corresponding score.

The validated subjects will have the equivalence in points corresponding to the grade obtained in the centre of origin; in adapted subjects, the grade obtained in the centre of origin will be taken into consideration while the recognition of credits with no grade or corresponding to non-integrated training activities in the curriculum will not be taken into account when calculating the average grade, as detailed in Royal Decree 1044/2003, of 1 August, and Royal Decree 1125/2003, of 5 September.

  1. In the case of studies carried out partially or totally in foreign university systems adapted to the EHEA, the average grade will be calculated on the complete bachelor’s degree studies or equivalent. When the number of credits in the bachelor’s degree is less than 240 ECTS, the average grade will be calculated on those studies plus all the credits obtained in the master’s degree; together they must add up to at least 300 credits.
  2. In the case of studies carried out partially or totally in foreign university systems that have not been adapted to the EHEA, the average grade will be calculated on all the studies completed to obtain the bachelor’s degree, applying the equivalences corresponding to Spanish university teaching.

 For studies carried out abroad, whether they were officially recognised or not, the average will be calculated in accordance with the Resolution of 16 July 2008, of the General Directorate of Universities, establishing the criterion to be applied for the calculation of the average grade of academic records of officially recognised foreign qualifications.

Criterion No. 2. English skills (up to 15 points). If students accredit as a minimum the C1 level in English, if their mother tongue is English or if they have carried out their university studies in that language, then the student could obtain 15 points. If students prove they have a B2 level in English, they could obtain 10 points. If students prove they have a B1 level, they could obtain 5 points. In order to demonstrate a particular level in English, the student should present an official certificate, according to the information that appears in the following links.

http://www2.uah.es/master_fps/documentos_pdf/tabla_equivalencias_lenguas.pdf

http://www.um.es/idiomas/examenes-oficiales/examenes-cambridge.php

 Criterion No. 3. The student could acquire up to 15 more points with other merits such as: scientific production of the applicant (authorship of publications or scientific-technical papers; participation in conferences - up to 5 points), Erasmus stays, SICUE-Séneca or similar stays (up to 5 points), extracurricular specialisation courses in Forensic Science or professional experience related to the doctoral programme. In this last merit linked to extracurricular specialisation courses or prior professional experience of the applicant in Forensic Science, the student can attach up to two reference letters written by lecturers, researchers or professionals who have been in contact with the applicant and who have taken part in the applicant’s training course in the field of Forensic Science (up to 5 points). Under no circumstances will merits already taken into account in the above-mentioned sections be valued in this section.

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 places available: 16 (8 at the University of Murcia)