Doctoral Program in Social and Legal Science

The need for doctoral training of graduates in degrees related to the Social and Legal Sciences is defended both in the academic and professional fields, where the need to continue researching and advancing in knowledge, techniques, and methods is confirmed, and this doctoral training is the main way of training researchers.

The Rey Juan Carlos University proposes the Doctoral Program in Social and Legal Sciences, to provide and offer doctoral training that contributes, on the one hand, to promoting the training of people with competence in research and innovation in Social and Legal Sciences, and on the other, to advance, through research, in responding to the needs of society within the framework of an integrating program, whose structure and organization allows for specialization, updating and diversification of training, research, and transfer in the field. of Social and Legal Sciences.

Within the Doctoral Program in Social and Legal Sciences, the different lines of research will be developed, in accordance with the requirements established in the current legislation and in the URJC regulations, contrasting the experience and research adequacy, and the existence of competitive projects. The line to which the doctoral student will be assigned will be determined by the access requirements and the subject of the thesis project. Each line of research, in turn, will define, without exclusion, the main topics for the development of doctoral theses, based on the existing groups and research experience of the tutors and assigned directors.

The Rey Juan Carlos University proposes this Doctoral Program:

• Train new researchers and prepare teams that contribute to social, scientific, and economic progress.
• Promote the training of new teachers in related disciplines.
• Specialize postgraduates who are interested in adequate professional, scientific, and technical development.
• Promote the creation of research groups and networks, nationally and internationally, and interdisciplinarity.

Goals:

The general objectives of the Doctoral Program of Rey Juan Carlos University will be, at least, the following:

• Encourage and deepen the knowledge and professional, scientific, and technical development of doctoral students in the field in question.
• Train new researchers capable of integrating into research teams.
• Promote the teaching career, deepening the research training of future teachers.
• The specialization of the student within the corresponding field, especially in its research aspect.
• Provide methodological instruments from which to approach the analysis of theory and practice from an interdisciplinary perspective, and provide basic criteria from which to address practical issues, in the different areas in which they arise.
• To have an adequate framework for the achievement and transmission of scientific advances.
• Train doctoral students so that they can play an essential role in public or private institutions involved in innovation and research so that they can lead the transfer from knowledge to the well-being of society.

In short, this Doctoral Program at the Rey Juan Carlos University aims to train doctors endowed with a critical scientific spirit, research capacity, and teamwork, through teaching organized into two areas: a general one (research techniques and methods, tools, and resources for it) and a specialization one, typical of the different consolidated lines of specialization that are developed in it.

Basic skills

• Systematic understanding of a field of study and mastery of research skills and methods related to that field.
• Ability to conceive, design or create, put into practice, and adopt a substantial process of research or creation.
• Ability to contribute to expanding the frontiers of knowledge through original research.
• Ability to carry out a critical analysis and evaluation and synthesis of new and complex ideas.
• Ability to communicate with the academic and scientific community and with society in general about their fields of knowledge in the modes and languages ​​commonly used in their international scientific community.
• Ability to promote, in academic and professional contexts, scientific, technological, social, artistic, or cultural progress within a knowledge-based society.

Personal abilities and skills

• To function in contexts in which there is little specific information.
• Find the key questions that must be answered to solve a complex problem.
• Design, create, develop, and undertake new and innovative projects in their field of knowledge.
• Work both in a team and independently in an international or multidisciplinary context.
• Integrate knowledge, deal with complexity, and make judgments with limited information.
• The criticism and intellectual defense of solutions.

Other Competitions

• That the student is able to identify open problems, not yet resolved, in the area of ​​Social and Legal Sciences.
• To be able to acquire advanced scientific knowledge in the field of Social and Legal Sciences, which will allow them to generate new ideas within a line of research.
• That the student is able to understand the procedure, value, and limits of the scientific method in the field of Social and Legal Sciences; being able to identify, locate and obtain data required in a research paper; as well as designing and guiding analytical, modeling and experimental investigations, in addition to critically evaluating data, and drawing conclusions.
• To be able to assess the importance of documentary sources, manage them, and search for information for the development of any research work.
• That they acquire the ability to read and understand publications within their field of study/research; as well as its cataloging and scientific value.
• That the student acquires the necessary knowledge about the financing mechanisms for research and technology transfer; as well as current legislation on data protection and the legal protection of results.
• That the student acquires the ability to prepare a scientific article of impact in the area of ​​Social and Legal Sciences.
• To be able to prepare, present and defend a doctoral thesis in the area of ​​Social and Legal Sciences in which: a) a state-of-the-art and critical analysis of the field of study is carried out, b) a systematic presentation of their original contributions, and c) an evaluation of them.