PhD Quality Assurance 

ANVUR has proposed a new Model for the periodic accreditation of premises, Departments, University Courses and PhD programmes (AVA 3). This is in response to a need that emerged at European level and was supported by ENQA 'European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education' and EQAR 'European Quality Assurance Register'. 
The model which is specifically for PhD courses, is: 

• D.PHD.1 - PhD Course Design
• D.PHD.2 - Planning and organising training and research for the advancement of PhD students 
• D.PHD.3 - Monitoring and improvement 

The PhD pathway is on the third level of education and the Dublin Descriptors outline its objectives:
Knowledge and understanding
Students who have systematically demonstrated understanding of a field of study and mastery of the related research method.
Applying knowledge and understanding
Ability to apply their knowledge and understanding that demonstrates a professional approach to their work, and possession of appropriate skills both to devise and support arguments and solve problems in their field of study.
Independent judgement
Ability to collect and interpret data (usually in one's own field of study) considered useful for making independent judgement, including reflection on related social, scientific or ethical issues 
Communication skills
Being able to communicate information, ideas, problems and solutions to specialists and non-specialists. 
Learning skills
Having developed those learning skills that are necessary to undertake further studies with a high level of independence.
Coherently with the the Quality Assurance (QA) policies of the Physics Department, the Scientific Board of the PhD course includes a QA contact person (prof. Andrea Mignone), who also covers this task at the departmental level. In compliance with the UniTo guidelines for QA in the PhD courses (which were received by the Physics PhD Scientific Board with a formal deliberation on 17/07/2023), the PhD course implements several good practices:

• Update and check the PhD web page (work group: coordinator and vice-coordinator, with the support of administrative staff)
• Periodic monitoring of the objectives and strategies of the PhD formative program (periodic meetings with stakeholders: last report on 22/05/2023 downloadabale from here)
• Periodic monitoring of PhD student courses and research (dedicated cretiding commission, as detailed here)
• Periodic monitoring of PhD student opinion questionnaires conducted both at the UniTo School and PhD degree levels (as detailed here)

With a formal deliberation on 17 July 2023, the Scientific Board of the PhD course received the recommendations of the University of Torino on Quality Assurance for PhD courses (issued by the Academic Senate on 23 May 2023). Upon the reception of such reccommendations, with a formal deliberation on 31 October 2023, the Scientific Board of the PhD course created its internal commission for self-monitoring and self-evaluation ("Commissione di Monitoraggio e Riesame" - CMR.PHD), which is composed as follows:

• Paolo Olivero: coordinator of the PhD Course (president of the commission)
• Marco Billò: member of the Teaching Commission of the Scientific Board
• Michela Greco: vice-coordinator of the PhD Course
• Davide La Riccia: representative of the administrative staff
• Marco Panero: member of the Crediting Commission of the Scientific Board
• Elenora Racca: representative of the PhD students