https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1058-4516
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ABSTRACT
Over the last two decades, the French doctorate has evolved significantly after the introduction of national policies defined by law in 2003. The most important change was the creation of about 250 doctoral schools, where students spend 3 to 4 years. At the same time, they are attached to an accredited research laboratory to do a thesis and become a researcher, and some of them, a lecturer. All of the steps of this process, ending in a viva, are codified by a single ministerial order of 2006, which was revised in 2016 and 2022. In this article, we present the main provisions of this text and expose the reasons for their introduction and their potential effects. The article also considers the consequences of the fact that the doctorate is no longer solely designed to provide universities and public research institutes with future professors and researchers.
Acknowledgments
The author thanks Dr Nathalie Boutin for discussion, comments and suggestions.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. Formerly, besides the doctorat d’État, requiring sometimes 7 to 15 years of research work before defense, had been existing, the doctorate of Ingénieur-docteur, and later the doctorat de troisième cycle shorter that the first one. They were all nationally defined. There existed also “university” doctorates, often for foreign students in large universities.
2. The ‘composantes’ are the official departments in a university. In the university governance, appointed by election “volume” does matter, and the powerful ‘composantes’ are often those with the largest number of students, often heirs of the old ‘facultés’ (lettres, sciences, medecine, droit), which were distinct institutions before 1968.
3. The ‘grandes-écoles’ are professional schools independent of the universities. They grant diplomas assorted with the “grade de master” (master’s level) . They are public or quasi-public institutions (like HEC, initiated by the Paris chamber of commerce). They carefully select among the top 10%-15% students coming out of the secondary education, while access to university is open to all secondary students after the final exam ‘baccalaureat’. Moreover, while the governance of the university and its ‘composantes’ is elected in political contests by students and teachers, that of grandes écoles is appointed by the minister of higher education.
4. ‘Haut comité d’évaluation de la recherche et de l’enseignement supérieur’ https://www.hceres.fr. This website publishes the evaluation reports for every doctoral school.
6. Depending on the discipline, 1/3 to 3/4 have got a master in the university sponsoring the doctoral school.
7. There are about 4,000 doctoral contracts funded by the state (on average 8 to 10 per school) and 1,500 CIFRE contracts. Foreign students are eligible.
8. Any public decision in France can be put before a court (called Tribunal administration). So more and more no-extension decisions are attacked and in some cases, the court has reverted the school decision.
9. The grande-école diplomas with grade de master are eligible for doctorate.
10. Allowed by a 2022 law called «social modernisation » (loi 2002-73 du 17 janvier 2002 : loi dite de modernisation sociale)
11. About 100 such doctorates have been granted in the last four years.
12. Co-supervising dissertations is important for lecturers preparing a HDR, and for senior professors supervision is a significant help for their own research
13. Deliberations are always closed door whereas the viva is always open door for everybody.
14. The original principle of ‘universality of knowledge’ was adopted in 1088 by the charter of the first European university in Bologna.
15 See 2021 conference at: https://www.canal-u.tv/chaines/dgesip/journees-nationales-du-doctorat
16. In all other disciplines, there is a concours d’agrégation but only for recruiting professors in the secondary education.
17. By tradition, the French official title of a professor is “professeur des universités”, with a plural to mark that the professor is a civil servant that can be appointed for servicing any public university.
18. Thanks to the ‘concours’ in the three disciplines mentioned, it is not unusual to be appointed as full professor below the age of 35, sometimes 30, while it requires ten years more with a HDR in other disciplines.
19. Some private prestigious ‘grandes écoles’ in management, with worldwide reputation, are launching their own practice oriented doctorates, called DBA, and research-oriented doctorates, called PhD, outside of the framework above described, betting on a sooner or later future recognition, alike foreign doctorates, of these degrees for public recruitment in the French universities and research institutions.
Additional information
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Pierre Batteau
Pierre Batteau is an emeritus professor of management at Aix-Marseille University, France. Initially trained in the US (Northwestern university PhD), he has supervised dozens of doctoral dissertations in France and in Europe. He has been director of the doctoral school of economics and management of his university, after being the dean of the graduate school of management (IAE-Aix). He was one of the founders and presidents of the European Doctoral Association of Management and Business Administration (EDAMBA) and vice-president of the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management (EIASM). Since 2008 he has also been involved in interdisciplinary research projects for doctoral students in Earth and nature sciences.