Are all doctoral theses so extraordinary? The 'cum laude' outstandings grow five points in eight years

Achieving a grade lower than outstanding

cum laude

in the doctoral thesis has become the exception.

In public universities, 80.9% of theses read in 2015 (when the Bologna Plan came into force) have gone from having the highest distinction to 85.5% in 2022 - the latest official data -, while in private universities The increase has been even greater (from 68.8% to 74.4%

cum laude

), but they score lower.

The progressive increase in grades stopped with the pandemic, when many theses were defended remotely with somewhat less success (83.4% cum laude in 2021), but with in-person attendance they have risen again to their maximum.

The period coincides with the implementation of the structured doctorate ―with greater supervision― which affects the theses read since 2017. Yes, according to the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE),

cum laude

is a compliment that “makes the distinction of the highest qualification even more expensive. ”, one of two: either the research of doctoral students in Spain is almost all extraordinary or a

cafe for all

has been established that harms true excellence.

“I understand that there are so many

cum laude

outstandings because the people who have reached that stage are excellent people and have taken care to obtain that grade.

That's why we spend so much time with the doctorate," says mathematician Pablo Gerlach, doctoral assistant and extraordinary doctoral awardee at the University of Seville.

0.7% of Spaniards between 24 and 64 years old are doctors.

Last year there were 92,000 people enrolled in the doctorate, but 11,200 theses were read.

There are many who fall by the wayside.

It can take up to eight years to read a thesis, but on average it takes 5.2 years in the public one and 4.9 in the private one.

The historian Rubén González Cuerva, extraordinary doctoral prizewinner from the Autonomous University of Madrid and head of the CSIC, thinks the opposite of Gerlach: “There is evident inflation and the cum laude

has been devalued

so as not to look bad with the directors, despite the fact that the “new systems try to guarantee anonymity.”

Both are part of The Invisible Faculty, an association that brings together national academic excellence awards that seek to improve the Spanish university.

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“They are more political than technical processes: the relationships you have managed to establish matter more than the work itself, and that guides most academic careers,” says Marco Antonio Joven, 34, a visiting professor at the University of Santo Tomás. (Manila).

“The fact that the courts are chosen by the directors is a serious deficiency of the system, which encourages the above,” adds the also member of The Invisible Faculty.

Joven achieved straight A's when he obtained his doctorate in Philosophy and with

cum laude

when he did so in Philology.

Gotzone Barandika, president of the Conference of Directors of Doctoral Schools, maintains that this increase in

cum laude

must be associated with the improvement in the quality of theses.

In her opinion, the 2011 decree (which applies to theses read since 2017), known as a

structured doctorate

, which

"It contains a series of elements that give it great robustness."

These ingredients are the schools and doctoral programs that host the academic committee, the directors and thesis tutors;

the definition of concepts such as “researcher in training” or the reinforcement of “supervision and monitoring of training through the commitment document, the research plan and the activities document.”

In addition, Barandika, director of the school at the University of the Basque Country, reiterates, it is mandatory to apply a code of good practices, the number of years to defend the thesis is limited (seven plus one if the extension is granted) - extensions by lows― or “the possibility of expulsion from the program, associated with the evaluation, is expressly included.”

In public universities, where nine out of ten theses are read, there are differences between areas of knowledge.

In some fields , cum laude

scores have dropped

- five points in Physics and Chemistry (85.5%), two points in Humanities (81.1%) or Engineering (84.7%) -, while they have increased in others - five in Agriculture (83.4%) and Behavioral Sciences (82%), four points in Education (83%), three in Arts (80.8%) or two in Law (83%)―.

In Medicine (91%), other Health Sciences (93%) or Mathematics (86%), they remain stable.

The experimental theses, the best rated

Experimental theses usually achieve the best grades and most are linked to a research project that has been submitted to a competitive competition to obtain funding.

“These theses are screened from the beginning and then, in addition, during the development you are very much on top of them, of course, while there are other disciplines in which, to understand ourselves, one can do the thesis from home and there is less control than that later the court will be found,” emphasizes José Javier Etayo, general secretary of the Royal Academy of Doctors and professor of Algebra at the Complutense University of Madrid.

In 11 of the 40 private universities there are no doctoral schools - four do not have ten doctoral students - and they are forced to create two programs if they do not want to close for not meeting the new requirements imposed by the Government.

Private ones hardly do experimental science: 94 life sciences theses were read in 2022 (85%

cum laude

) and 147 health sciences (88%

cum laude).

63% of the private theses obtained

cum laude

in the field of law and business administration, 64% of those in the humanities or 74% of those in engineering.

“I think that the note in a closed envelope and opened afterwards is a good idea to avoid conflicts between the board and thesis directors,” says Julio González, ophthalmologist at the Ramón y Cajal hospital, also at La Faculty Invisible.

The 2011 regulations specify that the court may award

cum laude

if a unanimously positive secret vote is cast.

This put an end to the custom of agreeing on the distinction out loud, meaning it in public.

“But the fact that there are three members per court instead of the five that there were, does seem like a step backwards to me, because it makes it easier for there to be conflicts of interest between the court and the director,” continues this extraordinary doctoral award from the University of Alcalá de Henares.

On some occasions, if the thesis is not of quality, the doctoral student is recommended to withdraw it and make changes.

“The court gives the floor in the defense act to the director, and no one likes to be told that the thesis that we have directed has defects, is copied or anything crazy,” argues Etayo.

“Evidently, of course the director is risking his prestige, but the thesis belongs to the doctoral student.”

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