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EuroThesis

Studying in Spain

Academic support for students in Spain

Spanish degrees end with a formally assessed final project at every level, defended orally before a panel. The TFG and TFM are not coursework with a longer word count; they are separate assessed components with their own regulations and their own defence.

01Terminology

What the terms actually mean

The words that mean something specific in the Spanish system, and that are easy to misread from outside it.

TFG (Trabajo de Fin de Grado)
The final project of an undergraduate degree, defended before a tribunal.
TFM (Trabajo de Fin de Máster)
The Master’s final project, typically more research-oriented than the TFG.
Tesis doctoral
The doctoral thesis, defended publicly and assessed by an appointed panel.
Director / tutor
The academic supervisor of the project; doctoral candidates have a director de tesis.
Tribunal
The panel of academics before whom the work is defended.
Matrícula de Honor
The highest distinction, awarded to a limited proportion of students.

02Study context

How the Spanish system works

General national practice. Individual institutions set their own regulations, and where they differ, theirs are the ones that count.

  • Grading runs from 0 to 10, with 5 the pass mark. Notable (7–8.9) and sobresaliente (9–10) are the upper bands, and Matrícula de Honor is capped by regulation as a proportion of the cohort.

  • The oral defence is a required component even at undergraduate level, which is unusual by European standards and catches out students arriving from systems where the dissertation is assessed on the document alone.

  • Universities publish their own TFG and TFM regulations — structure, length, submission format and defence procedure — and these are the operative document for your project.

  • Doctoral programmes are structured through a defined research period with annual progress assessment, and many require publications before the thesis can be deposited.

  • A growing number of Master’s programmes are taught in English, particularly in business, engineering and international relations.

03Worth knowing

Things students routinely get caught out by

  • APA is dominant in Spanish social sciences, education and psychology; IEEE is standard in engineering and computing faculties.
  • Where a thesis is written in English at a Spanish institution, an abstract in Spanish is often still required. Check your faculty’s deposit requirements.
  • Defence formats differ: some tribunals expect a short presentation followed by questions, others a fuller exposition. Ask your director what to prepare for.
  • Doctoral deposit requirements frequently include indexed publications, so publication planning should start early rather than after the thesis is drafted.

Referencing commonly required

APA 7th edition
Psychology, education, health and much of the social sciences
IEEE
Engineering, computer science and information technology
Harvard
Business, management, social sciences — the most common author–date family
Vancouver
Medicine, nursing and the biomedical sciences

04Services

Most requested by students in Spain

Dissertation & thesis

Full-length Bachelor’s, Master’s and doctoral projects, delivered chapter by chapter.

Presentations & defence

Slides built to be presented, plus preparation for the questions you will be asked.

Statistical analysis

SPSS, R, Stata and Python — with output explained well enough to defend.

Journal publication

Journal targeting, manuscript preparation and reviewer responses that address the review.

05Questions

Studying in Spain

Can you help me prepare for the tribunal defence?
Yes. We prepare a slide deck to your time limit, speaker notes written to be spoken, and a question bank built from the actual weak points of your project rather than a generic list.
My TFM regulations are in Spanish. Should I translate them?
Send them as they are. Structure, length and formatting requirements are what we need, and we would rather read the original than a summary that has lost a requirement in translation.
My doctoral programme requires publications before deposit. Can you help?
Yes — journal targeting, preparing manuscripts to house style and drafting reviewer responses. Given how long peer review takes, this is worth starting well before the thesis is finished.
Start here

Get a quote for a project in Spain

Send your programme’s regulations and assessment criteria — including in Spanish. We would rather read the original than a translated summary that has lost a requirement. We reply within a few hours on working days.

What to have ready

  • The assessment criteria or handbook
  • Your deadline and word count
  • Anything already written or approved

Not sure which service you need? Describe the project and we will tell you — including when the cheaper one is enough.

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