CPGEI - PhD and Academic Master
THE EDUCATION COUNCIL, on the fifth Extraordinary Meeting, considering the Process n° 36/05 COENS, in accordance to the Report n° 30/2005 - Postgraduate, Research and Extension CPGPE Hall, with the amendments approved in plenary,
DECIDE
To approve the REGULATION of the GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING:
Chapter I - Objectives and General Organization
Art. 1°. UTFPR Graduate Program in Electrical and Computer Engineering, hereinafter CPGEI, will hold "stricto sensu" postgraduate activities in Electrical Engineering and Industrial Computer Science fields and its related areas, with the following objectives:
a) train skilled manpower eligible to:
i. create new scientific knowledge;
ii. perform research and development activities;
iii. act autonomously in specialized personnel preparation for these activities
b) define, propose, coordinate and implement research projects and/or development within concentration areas in local, national or international levels;
c) generate critical mass, mindset and conducive environment to UTFPR teaching staff improvement and other related institutions in their areas of influence and contribute to UTFPR knowledge applied improvement in its courses and projects;
d) interact with productive sector, through UTFPR various boards and bodies, in expansion and qualification of the industrial park engaged in CPGEI’s knowledge and performance areas.
Art. 2°. CPGEI offers interdisciplinary Master and Doctorate, according to current legislation.
Paragraph 1° - "Stricto sensu” postgraduate activities include subjects, seminars and research activities, in addition to other actions that may be defined by its Board.
Paragraph 2° - CPGEI is organized into concentration areas, which bring together subjects and related activities and gather teachers, researchers, students and trainees to common goals of advanced education and research and configure its scientific and technological vocation.
Paragraph 3° - Human resources and necessary materials for teaching activities development and narrower scope research, in knowledge different areas, focus on research lines that may involve one or more concentration areas.
Chapter II - Management
Art. 4°. A Board and a Coordinator will coordinate CPGEI, in accordance to powers set forth in this Regulation, which will fulfill two-year term, being allowed one reappointment.
Art. 5°. CPGEI teachers and student body representatives will form the Board, according to Art. 11.
Sole Paragraph - The student representative, among those regular students with one-year minimal residence in CPGEI, will be appointed by all regular students enrolled in CPGEI, with one (1) year term, allowed one renewal.
Art. 6°. Board will meet whenever called by CPGEI Coordinator or at the request of one third (1/3) of its members, and will deliberate by simple majority of those present.
Art. 7°. It is up to the Board:
I - elaborate a three candidates list to Coordinator position to be presented to institution higher bodies;
II - change CPGEI rules for further higher bodies’ analysis;
III - establish CPGEI general guidelines;
IV - rule, whenever called, on postgraduate interest matters;
V - evaluate coordinator's decisions appeals;
VI - decide on CPGEI teachers’ accreditation and disqualification (Resolution 02/2008);
VII - assist Coordinator in all that is required for the proper CPGEI functioning, from educational, scientific and administrative points of view;
VIII - define dissertations and theses routing referral to examination boards;
IX - establish the process to components’ designation of dissertations, theses and qualifying tests examining boards’; [Resolution 01/2009]
X - approve subjects’ list, its respective menus and workloads;
XI - assign credits to compatible activities to CPGEI knowledge area and objectives, pursuant to Regulation;
XII – evaluate CPGEI periodically and systematically;
XIII - decide on mechanisms used in students transfer and selection, harnessing and revalidation of obtained credits from other postgraduate "stricto sensu” courses, subjects’ exemption, enrolment withdraw, readmission and related matters;
XIV - propose to higher bodies actions related to postgraduate training;
XV - deliberate on CPGEI interest cases unspecified in this Resolution.
Art. 8°. CPGEI Coordinator will chair the Board, having only a casting vote.
Sole Paragraph - CPGEI Board teaching representative, appointed by Coordinator, will replace him in all his impediments
Art. 9°. It is up to CPGEI Coordinator:
I - direct and coordinate all CPGEI activities;
II - prepare CPGEI draft budget according to guidelines and rules in force;
III - represent CPGEI internal and external of UTFPR in situations related to his skills;
IV - cooperate with higher bodies to CPGEI activities monitoring, implementation and evaluation;
V - submit activities’ annual report to relevant bodies;
VI - approve dissertations and theses minutes;
VII - establish CPGEI didactic activities distribution.
Chapter III – Teaching Staff
Art. 10°. Permanent Professors, Lecturers Employees and other participants will conduct research activities and CPGEI postgraduate.
Art. 11°. Teachers must have doctorate title or equivalent, devote themselves to research, have continued and relevant scientific production and be approved by the Board.
Sole Paragraph - will be classified as "other participants" professionals who do not frame under Permanent Professors or Lecturers Employees category, but who work sporadically in CPGEI technical and scientific activities.
Art. 12°. will be considered associate teachers, PhDs who systematically collaborate with CPGEI activities, teaching joint classes, participating in research projects or guiding a limited number of Master and/or PhD’s students.
Sole Paragraph - Teachers from other institutions that meet caput requirements of this Article or Article 11 may be accredited as CPGEI Permanent Professors or Lecturers Employees, based on their performance in the program.
Art. 13°. Notorious knowledge, recognized by university and Doctoral degree in the field, can meet PhD requirement for accreditation purposes as a teacher.
Art. 14°. Permanent Lecturer or Collaborator Teacher accreditation will be valid for five (5) years and may be renewed upon Board approval.
Art. 15°. Are Permanent Professors and Collaborator Lecturers powers:
a) guide student in organizing his study plan and research and continuously assist him in his formation;
b) propose Examining Boards’ composition to CPGEI Collegiate.
Art. 16°. Master or Doctorate student will have a supervisor, which will be part of a CPGEI annually organized list.
Paragraph 1° - At Board’s discretion, may be appointed a co-counselor;
Paragraph 2° - In case of guidance linked to another institution will be designate a CPGEI co-supervisor;
Paragraph 3° - Supervisors and co-supervisors must have PhD title.
Chapter IV - Academic Regime
Art. 17°. CPGEI students’ admission will be tied upon Permanent Professors and/ or Collaborator Teachers available guidance schedule.
Paragraph 1° - Students selection will be defined by Board’s resolution.
Paragraph 2° - Students readmission processes will be assessed by the Board.
Paragraph 3° - Doctoral Program candidate must present Doctoral Thesis plan elaborated together with supervisor.
Paragraph 4°. In special cases, at Board’s discretion, during Master course, it will be permissible enrollment change to PhD, with credits obtained exploitation.
Art. 18°. At Board’s discretion, and with supervisor consent, CPGEI enrolment withdraw is granted only once, for a maximum period of six (6) months, respecting course maximum duration and other requirements.
Sole Paragraph - At withdraw solicitation, remaining settlement time should be greater than or equal to the requested withdraw.
Art. 19°. Regarding academic regime, CPGEI students are classified into two distinct categories: regular and special.
Paragraph 1° - Regular student is every selected and enrolled student in normal conditions that can devote full time to the program.
Paragraph 2° - Regular student must attend two subjects minimum per semester in order to disburse credits in subjects as required to title obtaining.
Paragraph 3° - Special student who brings together academic conditions required to selection process is selected and undergoes specific rules, determined by the Collegiate.
Paragraph 4° - Special student must request his conversion to regular student, being dismissed of full-time requirement, within 12 months after enrolling in the program;
Paragraph 5° - Doctoral degree will not accept special students.
Art. 20°. Required studies settlement to Master and Doctorate will be expressed in credit units.
Paragraph 1° - A credit is equivalent to fifteen (15) hours of effective academic work.
Paragraph 2° - Credits attribution from other complementary activities will be defined by Board’s resolution. (Resolution 03/2004)
Paragraph 3° - Credits will not be allocated to activities in Dissertation,
Qualifying Exam or Thesis preparation.
Art. 21°. Collegiate will assess credits’ validity in subjects attended by students when they were obtained in longer periods than the respective course duration, as provided in Article 29.
Art. 22°. Credits earned by students in other “strictu sensu” postgraduate programs, authorized by CAPES (Higher Education Staff Improvement Coordination) can be accepted to CPGEI courses according to Board’s resolution criteria [see Normative Resolution 02/2009].
Art. 23°. Teachers responsible for subjects will evaluate students’ performance using the following concepts:
A - Excellent
B - Good
C - Regular
D - Insufficient
E - Quitter
I - Incomplete
Paragraph 1° - To other activities, or courses taken outside UTFPR postgraduate programs, will be awarded concept V (validated), except for those obtained in postgraduate programs’ subjects with specific agreements existence.
Paragraph 2° - will be considered approved in a particular subject or activity, students who obtain concepts A, B or C.
Paragraph 3° - I concept (Incomplete) will be assigned by the teacher to the student which has not yet completed a subject or activity’s requirements within the respective school year, being the corresponding evaluation result transferred to the next period.
Paragraph 4° - Student who obtains D or E concept in any subject, can repeat it in another semester. However, both results will be included in his transcript and will be used for calculating the grade point average.
Art. 24°. Student overall exploitation of attended subjects will be determined by his grade point average (GPA) calculated by the following formula:
GPA = Σ (Vi. Ci) / ΣCi
where Vi is numeric value corresponding to obtained concept (A equals 10, B is 8, C corresponds to 6, D to 4 and E to zero), and Ci is credits’ number associated to grade.
Sole Paragraph - Subjects and activities with I or V concepts will not have numerical value associated to them and their credits’ number will not be used in GPA calculation.
Art. 25°. Deadline for subjects or activities cancellation is pre-set at two-thirds (2/3) of each term duration.
Art. 26°. To Master course, student must obtain twenty-four (24) credits in subjects or activities, as follows:
a) at least 15 credits in subjects;
b) 9 credits maximum in other activities.
Art. 27°. To Doctorate, student must obtain forty-eight (48) credits in subjects or activities, as follows:
a) at least 30 credits in offered subjects, at least 3 of these obtained in subjects outside candidate's concentration area;
b) 18 credits maximum in other activities.
Sole Paragraph – Collegiate will define, based on resolution, over the use of earned credits by students during the period of Master's Degree obtaining in recognized courses [see Normative Resolution 02/2009].
Art. 28°. Up to 24 months after his entry into CPGEI, Doctoral student should undergo a qualification test of his Doctoral Thesis project, consisting of a written version and public presentation for hearing to an inquiry board, composed of at least three PhDs, one being external to UTFPR (see Resolution 01/2009).
Paragraph 1° - The supervisor can be part of the examination board.
Paragraph 2° - In exceptional cases, the student may request deadline extension in this article caput for up to six (6) months, with supervisor consent. It will be up to Collegiate the decision on granting or not the request.
Art. 29°. Minimum courses’ duration period will be twelve (12) months to Master and twenty-four (24) months to Doctorate. Students must complete all Master and Doctorate’s requirements in periods of twenty-four (24) months and forty-eight (48) months, respectively.
Paragraph 1° - In exceptional cases, at supervisor request and with Coordinator’s approval, may be granted to Master's student an extension of up to six (6) months, if maximum term - including withdraw – does not exceed thirty (30) months.
Paragraph 2° - In exceptional cases, at supervisor request and with Coordinator’s approval, may be granted to Doctoral student up to two extensions of up to six (6) months each, if maximum term - including withdraw - does not exceed sixty (60) months.
Art. 30°. The student will be withdrawn from course under the following conditions:
a) not passing in qualifying examination within thirty (30) months (including withdraw period), if doctoral student;
b) not subscribing to subject or activities in any school year, featuring abandonment;
c) presenting GPA lower than 6.0 in any school year;
d) presenting accumulated GPA (after second school term) lower than 7.0;
e) exceeding maximum deadline duration’s course, according to Art. 29;
f) upon his supervisor justified request.
Chapter V - Examining Boards
Art. 31°. Master's thesis Examining Boarders will consist of at least three (3) PhDs, being at least one of them from another institution.
Paragraph 1° - Supervisor can be part of the Examining Board.
Paragraph 2°. Master's thesis presentation and evaluation are formal public events scheduled to take date, place and time, previous and widely disclosed and in which members of examining board may argue the candidate on dissertation’s topic and submit any suggestions for its completion or modification.
Art. 32°. Doctoral thesis Examining Boarders will consist of at least five (5) PhDs, being at least two (2) of them from other institutions.
Paragraph 1° - Supervisor can be part of the Examining Board.
Paragraph 2° - Doctoral thesis presentation and evaluation are formal public events scheduled to take date, place and time, previous and widely disclosed and in which members of examining board may argue the candidate on thesis’ topic and submit any suggestions for complementation or modification.
Art. 33°. Dissertation or thesis will be considered "approved", "approved with requirements" or "failed" according to most of Examining Committee members’ assessment.
Paragraph 1° - In case of the Thesis or Dissertation be "approved with demands", Examining Committee will record in minutes the requested changes, the deadline and the examiner or examiners who will be responsible for the final approval.
Paragraph 2° - Examination board will set a period not exceeding ninety (90) days to the candidate who obtained his Thesis or Dissertation’s approval with "requirements" makes required modifications.
Paragraph 3° - If evaluator or evaluators consider presented demands fulfilled, they will issue a favorable opinion to be submitted to CPGEI Coordinator’s approval.
Paragraph 4° - If the decision is approved, Coordinator will arrange for drafting in minutes’ book Thesis or Dissertation final approval term.
Chapter VI - Titles and Diplomas
Art. 34°. To obtain Master of Science’s degree is required:
a) be approved in subjects and activities required under Article 26.;
b) demonstrate sufficiency in English language;
c) develop and present a compatible Dissertation with area’s characteristics;
d) be approved pursuant to Art. 33 and deliver final version, printed for public disclosure, of his Master's thesis within thirty (30) days, counting from final approval.
Sole Paragraph - In exceptional cases, to Coordinator’s discretion, deadline period described in item (d) may be extended for another month.
Art. 35°. To obtain Doctor in Science’s title is required:
a) be approved in subjects and activities required under Art. 27;
b) demonstrate proficiency in English language;
c) pass Qualifying Examination;
d) develop and present thesis, in Portuguese or English, which represents original work, research activity result, importing a significant contribution to subject’s knowledge, in one of the following formats:
i. standardized text;
ii. book as research product, published by commercial or university press, except for those related to applicant's, supervisor’s and coordinator’s home institution;
iii. thesis’ topic articles collection, published in specialized journals, indexed, with editorial and arbitration bodies, which will be preceded by an introduction that articulates the theoretical point of view and let explicit the employed methodology.
e) have technical and scientific publications as stipulated in Board’s resolution;
f) have favorable opinions to his Doctoral thesis public presentation, issued at least twelve (12) days before defense scheduled date, from two examining board’s members, external to UTFPR.
g) be approved in accordance to Article 33 and deliver the final version, printed for public disclosure of his Doctoral thesis within sixty (60) days, counting from final approval.;
Sole Paragraph - In exceptional cases, to Coordinator’s criteria, deadline period described in item (g) may be extended for an additional sixty (60) days.
Art. 36°. To international students will also be required proficiency in Portuguese.
Art. 37°. Exceptionally, by Board’s proposal and after titles and works’ examination by CPGEI teachers’ commission, specially specified by institution’s higher bodies, may be granted to highly qualified candidate, PhD title directly by thesis’ defense.
Sole Paragraph - In such cases, the board should be approved directly by own Collegiate and consist of at least five (5) PhDs, being most from other institutions, all with proven competence in the area and having at least two external members being Productivity Research Scholarship holders (CNPq).
Art. 38°. Titles obtained in CPGEI can only be granted after dissertation or thesis final version approval.
Sole Paragraph - No statement, conclusion historical or relevant minute’s copy of dissertation or thesis presentation will be provided to the applicant before being delivered his dissertation or thesis final printed version.
Art. 39°. Master or Doctor of Science degrees will be signed, at least, by the institution maximum Director and the Graduate.
Art. 40°. Must be included in Master and Doctorate degrees the granted title and the concentration’s area in which it was obtained.
Chapter VII - General and Transitional Provisions
Art. 41°. Students’ enrollment, subjects’ application, withdraw and enrolment’s cancellation and other acts of CPGEI academic life will be effected by UTFPR’s Department, that will maintain an ongoing record of all documents generated, sent and received, related to their students’ academic lives .
Art. 42°. To students enrolled in CPGEI before the entry into force of this Regulation is permitted to complete their course under the rules in force at the time of their enrollment.
Art. 43°. CPGEI’s actions forms, technical and administrative procedures will be complemented by Board’s resolutions, observing provisions of this Regulation.
Sole Paragraph - Coordination will keep updated record of current resolutions.
Art. 44°. Omissions in this Regulation will be decided by the Collegiate and subject to UTFPR’s higher bodies.