512 new doctors who defended their thesis in 2023 were named in the ceremony held last May 24 in the Main Hall of the University of the Basque Country. The Rector Eva Ferreira presided over the ceremony, and the Director of the Doctoral School Gotzone Barandika and the Academic Secretary Eva Portillo also participated in the ceremony. Professor Rosa María Hernández of the Department of Pharmacy and Food Science read "Nanomedicine: an ally in the treatment of diseases".

Eva Ferreira "In the professional field, the doctorate is an added value", stated the Rector Eva Ferreira. "And this reality, which no one doubts in other developed countries, is still to be accepted in our country. This deficiency must be covered: we must put the doctor in his rightful place in society. Only in this way can a society based on knowledge and innovation continue to progress", he added.

On the other hand, in the words of Barandika, "the number of doctoral students has increased in recent years", and "out of the 4,000 students of the Doctoral School, for the first time, we have more than a thousand international students, coming from more than 100 countries".

Furthermore, Barandika emphasized the employability data of the doctors offered by Lanbide; according to the organization's report, "the employment rate and adjusted employment are above 95% in all branches of knowledge". He also stated that, according to a study carried out by Confebask, "Basque companies plan to hire 1,165 doctors in 2024". The event ended with a performance by the UPV/EHU Choir.

The upward trend in the reading of theses

In this academic year, a total of 512 new doctors were invested who defended their thesis in 2023; 49% of them were women (251) and 51% were men (261). 225 PhD students (44%) read their international thesis, 58 were presented in Basque and 30 obtained an industrial reference.

Regarding the branch of knowledge, 30% of theses were defended in Sciences, 26% in Social and Legal Sciences, 21% in Engineering and Architecture, 15% in Health Sciences and 8% in Arts and Humanities.

In recent years, the number of doctoral theses read at UPV/EHU shows an upward trend; in fact, in the last three years, it has increased by 18%: 424 theses were read in 2021; 462, in 2022; and 512 in 2023.