The program consists of the development and presentation of a PhD thesis, which must necessarily involve original research. The student's activity will be mainly research, but will be complemented by training activities that will be carried out in parallel to the progress of the thesis.

Mandatory training activities

1. Attendance to courses and scientific events

Each academic year the student must attend courses, workshops, conferences, congresses, seminars or any other scientific event related to the different fields of Veterinary Sciences and to the scope of the thesis research. The events must have a PhD level (attendance to congresses and conferences for undergraduate students will not be valid for this activity).

In the first year, the students will be required to attend two mandatory seminars on Biosafety and Ethics and Integrity in Research. For the rest of the activities, the students will select courses and events under the guidance of their tutors and supervisors. The UCM Doctoral School offers training activities, as well as the PhD program and tthe Faculty of Veterinary Sciences, but the students can also attend external activities organized out of UCM.

Attendance to all activities must be supported by documentary evidence. 

2. Student' seminars

This activity consists of the preparation and presentation of a mandatory seminar related to the contents of the thesis, as well as compulsory attendance to a minimum number of presentations given by other PhD students.

The presentation of the seminar will be held in the second year, for full-time students, and in the third year, for part-time students.

The seminar will be evaluated by tutors, supervisors and the Program Academic Board.

3. Scientific production

All students are required to write a scientific paper derived form their research. The paper must be sent to a peer-reviewed journal indexed in JCR or SJR, according to defined quality criteria.
The paper must be, at least, under review before the thesis is completed.