General Regulations
All regulations concerning courses and exams are provided in the “Study Programme”, which is different for each Cycle.
Tutor and advisor
Tutor
The tutor is a member of the Faculty Board (Collegio dei docenti), belonging to the same area as the PhD Student, who monitors and supports the progress of the research and formation activity of the PhD student.
The tutor has to be informed of any change in the study plan and should possibly approve it, by sending a message to , or suggest modifications.
The tutor may receive notifications about missions of the tutored students, and may insert notes through the PhD Manager portal. No action is specifically due.
The tutor may also act as third party to support the student solving any issue that may affect the activity of the student, including issues that may arise with the advisor.
The tutor is assigned by the Faculty Board to the student by the end of the second month from the start of his/her activity. The student is invited to suggest a tutor name by sending a message to .
If a tutor leaves the Faculty Board, a new one has to be assigned through an analogous procedure.
Advisor
The advisor is either a DEIB, DIG or DMAT professor, or in special cases an external person with an appropriate curriculum, who defines with the PhD student the topic of her/his research activity and thesis and drives the research activities of the student, for which the advisor is responsible. The advisor can be supported by one co-advisor.
The advisor is requested to integrate with research funds the annual scholarship if awarded on university funds.
At the end of each year, the advisor provides the evaluation board with an evaluation of the progress of the student’s activity, by filling in the corresponding box available from the PhD Manager on the personal POLIMI portal (Annual Review Form Evaluation). This evaluation is one of the elements the evaluation board will consider when deciding upon admission of the student to the next year or, at the end of the last year, upon submission of the PhD thesis to the external reviewers.
The advisor should propose to the Faculty Board the set of external reviewers for the student’s thesis in due time, by sending a message to
The advisor is selected by the student by the end of the second month from the start of his/her, by sending a message to , and nominated by the Faculty Board, which, in case of external reviewers, will also evaluate the appropriateness of the curriculum.
Faculty Board
Hereunder we refer to the general rules of PhD Programmes at Politecnico, available at Regolamento Dottorato di Ricerca
Examinations and candidate evaluation
Examinations
Every year your work will be evaluated by the PhD board of professors.
At the end of each year, each PhD student receives an e-mail containing the instructions about the documentation to be provided online. This will include a report on the yearly activity. Advisors and tutors receive analogous instructions for their side, namely, to provide notes about the yearly activity.
An oral presentation is due at the end of the first and second year, only.
During the presentation, PhD student will be asked to show:
- the progress of the major research activities;
- the work plan;
- the exam evaluations;
- publications;
- teaching activities.
The yearly evaluation might be passed with the admission to the next year (with a mark from A to D) or may turn out in the admission to the same year (repetition), or in the termination of the PhD activity.
At the end of the third year the oral presentation is not due. Basing upon the presented documents, whose drafts are available in the “Thesis” tab, within the last 15 days of the PhD period, the PhD Board nominate two external reviewers and admit the student to send them the thesis. The student is responsible to make the reviewers sen- ding their feedback to the secretariat, who will send them instructions, within 30 days from the nomination.
Reviewers can ask to delay the discussion of the thesis up to 6 months, to complete it and fix issues.
A final discussion of the thesis is done within 4 months from the end of the PhD, in front of a committee including an internal professor (e.g., the advisor of one of the stu- dents evaluated by the committee) and two external professors. In the Committee cannot be included both the advisor and a reviewer for any student.
Candidate evaluation
As a result of each successful annual evaluation, the candidates receive an evaluation about their performance, based on the presented documents, and, for the first two years, on a public presentation. Candidates who do not pass the exam can be qualified either as “Repeating candidate” (Er) and will be allowed to repeat the year, or as “not able to carry on with the PhD” (Ei)”, and will have to leave the PhD program. The third year evaluation establishes the candidate’s admission to send the thesis to the reviewers, so to get their final approval to access to the final PhD defense, to be held in front of an external committee. In particular, to obtain a positive evaluation, at least a publication on a significant journal or conference is needed.
Publications
All publications produced with the POLIMI affiliation should include the DEIB affiliation and should be inserted in the IRIS catalogue. This can be accessed from the personal Polimi portal, under the Administration section-> IRIS Re.Public@Polimi – Catalogue/repository of research publications
The system has been designed to be self-explanatory, but manuals are available online. Paper records could be searched by title and the returned record inser- ted and completed, or, if not found, manually inserted. Be sure to insert also the references to ISI Citation Index or Scopus, when available. A version of the paper should also be uploaded with the corresponding record, according to the copyright rules stated on the IRIS web site: either an author copy, or a pre-print are usually acceptable for this purpose, sometimes also the original, according to the info available from the site. Incomplete records cannot be considered.
Mobility, materials, IT devices procurement, devices and teaching activities
Mission in Italy and abroad
If you plan to go abroad for research periods, conferences, summer schools, etc., before leaving you must:
Submit requests exclusively online (at least ten days before departure) by accessing, through your personal page on the Polimi site (http://www.polimi.it/servizionline/), to the application “PhD students career”. The PhD Programme Coordinator should explicitly approve such requests.
After getting approval, fill the form online available on http://www.polimi.it/servizionline/, in the Mission section, to request funding for missions to the Coordinator, if the mission is paid by your PhD funding, or to any other professor that will pay for your mission. Please, check the box stating that the Programme Coordinator has already approved your request. You must fill out this form for insurance matters even if you don’t request any funding.
BOTH authorizations should come to the mission office BEFORE your leaving date. If the mission is in Italy, you have to:
fill the form online available on http://www.polimi.it/servizionline/, in the Mission section, to request funding for missions to the Coordinator, if the mission is paid by your PhD fundings, or to any other professor that will pay for your mission.
If you ask an advanced payment, remember to provide the documents/receipts related to the expenses for which the advanced payment is request.
Periods of activity outside Politecnico (e.g. abroad) are encouraged, but not mandatory. Economical support is available. Request for the 50% increase to scholarship
If you have a Ph.D. scholarship you can ask for a 50% increase of the grant, minimum stay two weeks, by checking the relevant box in the form you’ll submit through the application “Phd students career”, and uploading the invitation letter by the host University or Institution.
At the following link you could find some useful information about the insurance for the period abroad: Dottorati di Ricerca – Politecnico di Milano: Insurance for travelling abroad
Materials, IT devices procurement, devices
For purchases of materials and equipment you will have to follow the Department Administration rules.
The funds to be used for purchases on your endowment have the code indicated every year from the secretariat.
You will have to open a request for purchase on the Online Services, under Amministrazione (Administration), item Richieste di acquisto dipartimento, RDA for short.
If you need more information or details about a specific purchase procedure please contact:
At the following link you could find some useful information: Guidelines for departmental procurement
The code for all expenses on PhD funds in 2024 is UA.A.RRR.DEIB.BDIP.STUD.00B4DOTT03 – CONTRIBUTO DOTTORATO DI RICERCA “INGEGNERIA DELL`INFORMAZIONE/DOTTORATO DADS” ES. 2024 – COORD. PROF. SECCHI/DMAT
Teaching activities
Teaching activities carried out by the PhD candidates are allowed according to the following rules:
The limits are:
- Pre-approved: up to 40 hours
- Coordinator approval needed: up to 60 hours
- Any other request will be evaluated by the Academic Board (Collegio dei docenti)
PhD Students of DEIB Department are pre-authorized for a maximum of 40 hours for PhD year. At this page you can find the calls for teaching activities: https://www.deib.polimi.it/ita/bandi-procedure-valutazione-comparativa
If students of other Department need to be authorized, please fill out the following form: form