More than 120 doctoral students who have registered at the URV attended the welcome ceremony organised by the Postgraduate and Doctoral School on 9 February at the URV’s Auditorium. The future doctors were introduced to the University, the research carried out here, and their curriculum and research plan for the next three years

“Ever since the University was founded 25 years ago, doctoral studies have been a part of the URV’s DNA,” said Josep Manel Ricart, vice-rector for Scientific and Research Policy, to the more than 120 doctoral students (out of the total of 220 who have registered so far) who filled the Auditorium on Thursday 9 February.

Ricart told them all about the University’s history and ethos in the context of the region, and described the synergies with other research institutions and centres. “One of the University’s major missions is to place knowledge at the service of society,” he explained. He assured the doctoral students that during their stay at the URV they “would have lots of chances to join in and do research.”

The director of the l’Postgraduate and Doctoral School, Francesc Díaz, congratulated the doctoral students for having chosen to come to the Universitat Rovira i Virgili for their doctoral training. “The data show that you have made a good choice,” he said. Díaz gave a summary of the figures about doctoral courses, the numbers of students over the years and the number of theses completed, the doctoral courses on offer and the percentage of international students who choose the URV for their doctorate (33% according to the last Research Report).

For Díaz, the URV’s doctoral strategy has six main objectives: to maintain the quality of the doctoral programmes, obtain funds, recruit talent, increase scientific output to give the research done at the University greater visibility, work for internationalisation and make students employable.

The director of the Postgraduate and Doctoral School asked the students to take advantage of their time at the University over the next three years to do science and publish in indexed journals o take out patents. He also encouraged them to develop their general skills and not to forget internationalisation so that they can develop as professionals who can be successful in the job market. “All these things,” he said, “have made the University more visible, particularly in the international rankings,” and he spoke of the University’s position in the Times Higher Education and Shangai rankings. And he encourage the students to work hard over the next three years to achieve these goals.

The welcome session finished with a short talk by Ignasi Salvadó, head of the area for Research, Transfer and Innovation. He spoke about the more practical aspects (evaluations, organisation, dates, etc.) of the doctoral students’ curriculum and research plan.