France

Doctoral training in France

Doctoral training takes place within a team or research unit (unité de recherche [UR]) affiliated to a doctoral school (école doctorale [ED]), under the control and responsibility of a thesis supervisor. The EDs bring together the research teams focussing on specific scientific themes from one or more higher education institutions. These schools oversee the doctoral students’ training by offering them high-level scientific supervision along with preparation for future professional integration (training, teaching, seminars and work placements) by increasing their awareness of the industrial world.

They organise and coordinate doctoral training and guarantee the implementation of coherent scientific projects.

Other institutions can be co-accredited or associated with this. Co-accreditation authorises each institution concerned to award the doctorate on its own, while an associated institution may only award the doctorate jointly with the ED’s supporting institution.

Requests for admission and registration for the doctorate are made to the university.

For this you need to:

• Be the holder of a Master’s degree
• Contact the doctoral school to submit a suggested research subject or consult the subjects offered
• Have a supervisor (appointed by the doctoral school) for your thesis who you should discuss ways of financing your period of study with.

Please note that the financial aspect of your doctoral training is usually a necessary requirement for admission to a doctoral school.

The doctoral school is the main contact for providing the future doctoral student with guidance about finance and implementing it. Since April 2009, the doctoral contract has replaced the former research grants. The doctoral contract is a contract which is open to all students working on a thesis, lasts for a period of 3 years and offers all the normal social security privileges, as well as remuneration with a guaranteed minimum level (€ 1,985 gross). It is identical for all research institutions and is within the province of the doctoral school, which organises obtaining it.

This doctoral contract thus includes all the social privileges of a real employment contract in accordance with public law, and reinforces the element of professional experience in research attached to doctoral training.

Apart from doctoral contracts entered into by the institutions, several other types of financial support exist: bilateral arrangements and grants from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, employment contracts funded by the laboratories’ research tax credits, co-financing by local authorities, CIFRE agreements (industrial agreements on training through research with companies), as well as grants from the student’s country or institution of origin.

Some figures

• Number of doctoral schools nationally in a given year
  295 doctoral schools on 1 September 2007
• Number of doctoral students nationally + percentage of foreign doctoral students in a given year
  74,500 doctoral students in France in 2008, a third of them being foreign doctoral students
• Number of doctorates awarded in a given year
  10,495 doctorates awarded in 2006
• Number of research grants allocated in a given year
  4,000 research grants allocated in 2008
• Number of industrial training agreements signed in a given year
  1,200 CIFRE agreements signed in 2007