[Article updated and reviewed 2015-11-15]
The complete download of the TESEO database has enabled the first analyses and verifications, yielding several interesting data and insights that merit sharing with the Spanish scientific community. Below are a series of statements grounded in the collected information.
Initial Results
The TESEO database contains 196,442 registered doctoral theses, with a total of 1,190,508 markers, implying that 994,066 are duplicates. A total of 7,857 doctoral thesis records lack the date of defense. Based on the number of doctoral theses registered in TESEO, using the defense date as reference, an overall positive growth trend is observed. It can be confirmed that the periods of greatest growth occurred during «1986–1987» with an increase of +2,260, «1989–1990» with +1,474, «1993–1997» with +2,694, and finally 2007–2014 with a growth differential of +4,061 newly registered works.
Figure 1. Evolution of the total number of PhD Theses registered in TESEO by year
The main milestones in the evolution of PhD Theses in Spanish universities are as follows: The lowest point in the historical series occurred in 1985 with 985 registered theses. From 1985 to 1987, a significant increase of 2,260 works took place, reaching a total of 3,245 registered theses. In 1990, annual thesis registrations reached 4,457, and from 1993 onward, a period of growth began, culminating in 1997 with 6,245 registered PhD theses. Between 1997 and 2002, fluctuations occurred ranging between 5,400 and 6,300 registered theses, until 2003 reached a peak of 6,997 registered works. In 2003, a slowdown in thesis production began, reaching its lowest point in 2006, followed by continuous growth until 2014, surpassing all previous benchmarks with over 9,000 PhD theses per year. The year 2015 cannot be analyzed, as it is still within TESEO’s active registration period and its data may vary significantly.
Figure 2. Growth differential in the number of PhD Theses
A detailed analysis of the period of greatest growth in the number of doctoral theses in Spain (2007–2014) reveals that the most prolific years were 2008 and 2012, which together account for 50% of the increase observed over the past eight years. A slowdown is also evident from 2012 to 2014, with a reduction in the rate of growth of doctoral theses.
Figure 3. Detail of the period 2004–2009
The possible factors that may explain the significant growth in the number of doctoral theses in Spain since 2007 include the following: 1) The reform of the Organic Law on Universities in 2007, enacted by Royal Decree 1393/2007 of October 29, which was implemented to align the Spanish higher education system with the Bologna Process within the European Higher Education Area. 2) The law stipulates that doctoral thesis work must be completed within a four-year period, which may have contributed to the highest increase recorded throughout the historical period. 3) The rise in the number of third-cycle students and the expansion in the number of universities in Spain likely contributed to the increases observed in the TESEO database. 4) University internationalization efforts may underlie the growing number of foreign students coming to conduct their research in our country. 5) Based on the data obtained, it cannot be affirmed that the economic crisis has interfered with the growth of doctoral theses. However, additional data would be required to definitively rule out this hypothesis.
- Data file [Datasets] – dataset_teseo-analisis-cronologico.xlsx