The University of Oviedo will grant direct access to PhD Programs to those students who have graduated from the programs that have more than 300 ECTS credits. This measure, approved today by the PhD Committee, will allow students who graduated before the establishment of th Bologna Plan to access a PhD Program without having to complete a Master's Degree. The creation of the European Higher Education Area established having completed a Master's Degree as a compulsory requirements to access a PhD Program.

Last March, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports published a note to allow the different universities to decide for themselves how to interpret the requirements to access PhD Programs of graduates from the old second-cycle and long-cycle programs. The PhD Committee is composed by members of the Governing Team of the University and 15 teachers that act as representatives of all the fields of knowledge.

According to the Agreement by the PhD Committee, applicants will have to take the complementary formation on research methodologies stipulated by the Academic Committee of the corresponding program.

The International Center for Postgraduate Studies of the University of Oviedo will offer during the next academic year 24 PhD Programs, 10 of which have been awarded with the Mención hacia la Excelencia, in all the fields of knowledge. More than 800 students are currently taking these studies.

Those who are in possession of an official Spanish university Degree obtained according to the university regulations from before the Royal Decree 1393/2007, structured in one cycle and with a total of less than 300 LRU credits, will only be able to access a PhD Program if they have successfully completed at least 60 ECTS credits from a Master's Degree and when the sum of the total credits of their official university studies is 300 or more.