Entering students

If you have just entered the program, you should familiarize yourself with the program regulations,  CPG statutes, USP postgraduate studies statutes and the postgraduate studies introduction course, conceived by the USP Pro-Rectory of Postgraduate Studies and aimed at improving the academic experience of entering students. 

The Janus system is programed to send e-mail warnings about some important deadlines, such as the final deadline for qualification. However, this is only an auxiliary tool. The responsibility of meeting deadlines falls on the student, and noncompliance with some demands may result in disenrollment. Be attentive!

Here is some essential information to clarify the most common questions of candidates and entering students. Further details are available in the program regulations and statutes. Be sure to read them!

Deadlines

  • Time to conclusion: 
    Master’s: 30 months.
    PhD and Direct PhD: 48 months.
  • Time to qualification:
    Master’s: maximum 15 months from the beginning of the course.
    PhD and Direct PhD: maximum 24 months from the beginning of the course.
    ATTENTION: To be eligible for the qualification exam, students must have completed 50% of the minimum credits in courses required for thesis defense. Failure to complete the qualifying exam within the deadline results in automatic disenrollment.

Credits

  • Credits to be completed (1 credit equals 15 hours of class):
    Master’s: 100 (30 in courses, 70 in thesis work).
    PhD: 164 (24 in courses, 140 in thesis work).
    Direct PhD: 194 (54 in courses, 140 in thesis work).
  • Specials credits:
    Master’s: may obtain up to 15 credits.
    PhD: may obtain up to 12 credits.
    Direct PhD: may obtain up to 27 credits.

Half-yearly report

  • Submission of a simplified half-yearly report of activities is mandatory. The report should follow the outline provided in the report template

Disenrollment due to poor performance

  • Two consecutive failures of the half-yearly report.

  • Failure to submit the half-yearly report within the deadline established in the annual schedule, announced by the postgraduate studies secretariat and available on the Program webpage.

Thesis submission

  • The final thesis may be submitted in the traditional form, or as an article or set of articles. The articles may be written in Portuguese, Spanish, or English, as long as they all share the same language. The articles may be formatted in accordance with the demands of the journal to which they were submitted for publishing.

Double degree

The department has concluded double degree agreements with universities in Italy and Spain. There is potential to establish other agreements soon.

The double degree is available to PhD students and guarantees that their title is acknowledged by both USP and the partner institution.