In this section, we report the procedure of activation of the joint thesis supervision as referred by two of our Ph.D. students who did it. Therefore, it has to be taken as general guidelines and we recommend always referring to the people in charge and to the Sapienza offices involved.
This is a fundamental document including all the details you need to specify to activate your joint thesis supervision. You can find it translated into several languages at this website.
the Ph.D. student
Sapienza thesis supervisor and the partner University thesis supervisor
Sapienza thesis advisor (in cc in every email)
The Physics Ph.D. Coordinator
The Physics Ph.D. Secretariat)
The Sapienza Ph.D. Central Office
The Enhancement and Technology Transfer Office manager
Secretariat of the abroad institution
The Sapienza Rector
Rector of the partner University
The Ph.D. student must personally contact the doctoral secretariat of the foreign University to learn about their joint thesis supervision procedure. All the information will be contained in the final co-tutorship document common to both institutions, and signed by the rectors of the respective Universities. It is advisable to read beforehand, and keep in mind, all the information contained in the draft, which you can download here.
N.B. The Ph.D. student must have the Italian joint thesis supervision document read by the foreign secretariat and the foreign joint thesis supervision document read by the secretariat of La Sapienza. The two secretariats must carry out supervision that must lead to a mutually accepted format that contains all the important information.
N.B. Often, in the foreign form (not in the Italian draft, and in case it needs to be added), there is a section about "Intellectual property rights" following publications by the doctoral student: this section should be submitted to La Sapienza's Office for Enhancement and Technology Transfer (Daniele Riccioni).
Finally, the draft, in order to become a joint thesis supervision agreement, will have to be modified personally by the doctoral student according to what learned from the foreign secretariat (information about fees, to be paid or not depending on the organization of the partner University; information on the final examination; articles of the law on which the foreign joint thesis supervision is based, and so on...) and from that of La Sapienza.
2a. The doctoral student needs to submit an official application to establish a joint thesis supervision with a foreign University to the nearest Collegio dei Docenti. The Physics Ph.D. secretary will present the matter to the Collegio. The documents to be sent to the secretary for presentation to the Collegio are:
1 copy of the Ph.D. student's thesis project (1 page/1.5 pages, it does not have to be a final project) in Italian and 1 copy in English (possibly also one in the partner University's original language)
the doctoral student's curriculum vitae (English)
3 copies of the consolidated Italian joint thesis supervision agreement (convenzione di cotutela) in Italian and 3 copies of the same document in the University's original language. It is not required to submit the foreign joint thesis supervision.
2b. In the meantime, the doctoral student will have started a process at the partner University to enroll as a Ph.D. student. This procedure varies from University to University.
Example: joint thesis supervision with Ecole Normale Superieure de Paris: the doctoral student enrolls at the University and the doctoral college to which their supervisor belongs, pays the national and internal fees (which will eventually be returned to them), fills out the partner University's internal joint thesis supervision application form (another document again, generally of little importance). At this step, the doctoral student officially becomes a double doctoral student, in both Universities, but not yet a doctoral joint thesis supervision student.
3. Once the project is approved by the Collegio, the Physics Ph.D. secretary (Dr. Perrotta) takes care of getting the documents (copies of the Italian convention + copies of the foreign convention, if any) signed by those in charge. These are usually the Italian thesis supervisor and the Coordinator of the doctorates, but the signature of the Head of the Department may be required (depending on the needs of the partner University).
4. Once the necessary signatures have been obtained, the Department secretariat or the doctoral student, will personally deliver the documents to the Sapienza Central Doctoral Office. The latter (the person currently in charge is Dr. Claudia Desantis) will arrange for all 6 copies to be signed by the rector of La Sapienza.
5. After signing, the doctoral student will personally send the 6 documents by post to the partner University for signature by the rector together with 3 copies of the signed foreign joint thesis supervision agreement.
6. The partner University will keep for itself a copy of the now official joint thesis supervision agreement in Italian and foreign languages, sending back the remaining copies by post to Rome.