Royal Decree 99/2011 of 28 January 2011 (modified by RD576/2023 of July 4), which regulates official PhD studies, establishes a time limit for the completion of PhD studies. 

The duration will be a maximum of four years for full-time students, or six years for part-time students, in both cases, from admission to a PhD program (15 October) until the presentation of the PhD thesis at the Academic Commission of the corresponding programme.

If the application for the deposit of the thesis has not been submitted before the end of the aforementioned period, the Commission may authorise the extension for a further year (two years in the case of part-time students).

Depending on the completion of full-time or part-time studies, as well as on the exceptional circumstances envisaged, the PhD student will have the deadlines indicated in the following table.

The request for extension  must be addressed to the Academic Commission of the Programme in the four months prior to the end of the limit of permanence in the programme according to their dedication regime. Once all the signatures have been collected, it must be presented to the Students' Secretary Office of the Center responsible for the Doctoral Programme. For the purposes of this calculation, the periods in which the doctoral student has been authorized to leave the programme temporarily for any of the reasons contemplated in the current regulations will not be taken into account. Each student can consult his deadline for remaining in the programme in the RAPI2 application.

Students who wish to request an extension for the completion of the Doctoral Thesis, should consult the deadlines and rules of permanence on the website of the Doctoral School of the UCM, whose link is included here.