It is recommended that incoming students have completed a Bachelor's or Master's Degree in the Social Sciences.

Were the Academic Committee to find any deficiency in the training of any Doctoral student, they may be required to complete complementary training. This may include the Research Methodology Module (designed in this programme for those students who come from undergraduate or postgraduate degrees that lack such training), or some of the modules of the different master's degrees related to this programme, depending on the line of research the student chooses.

The requirements for access to Doctoral programmes are established by Royal Decree 99/2011. In general, holding an official Spanish Bachelor's degree, or equivalent, and a Master's Degree shall be necessary to access an official Doctoral programme.

Admission applications shall be submitted to the Academic Committee of the corresponding programme, which shall issue a technical report. The application shall be processed as established in the rules and instructions for admission and enrolment.

Students’ admission shall follow these criteria:

• Curriculum Vitae: Previous research experience (20%)
• Academic record: Both the qualifications obtained in the Bachelor's Degree (or equivalent) and in the Master's Degree studies, as well as the suitability of these studies to the line of research applied for (55%)
• Having a research contract or holding a research grant (10%)
• Cover letter explaining, in a reasoned manner, the Doctoral student’s interest in being admitted to the programme. If necessary, the

Academic Committee may hold an interview with the interested party to further assess the student's motivation and personal commitment (15%).

These admission criteria are common to both full-time and part-time students.

Every student shall receive in each criterion a maximum score equivalent to its weighting percentage, up to a maximum final score of 100 points. To be admitted into the programme, students need a minimum of 70 points.