How to enroll yourself in a doctorate degree program

In France, there are no "doctoral programmes" that enable you to enroll for a Doctorate in a particular field, leaving you the first year to choose and refine your thesis subject.

You must therefore be able to find a thesis topic and a thesis supervisor before you can enroll. The Doctoral school must also accept you.

First of all, to enter the first year of a Doctorate, you must have a Master's degree or equivalent, so therefore during the second year of your Master's you should start to look for a Doctorate (starting in January).

To enroll in the natural and technological sciences (Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Biology, Engineering), you need funding.

In some cases, you can enroll without funding in the Social Sciences and Humanities. Check with the doctoral school here.

Funding is required for tuition (€391/year) but more importantly, for living expenses (grants, salary, generally greater than €1,000/month).

The first question to ask yourself is the following: does my government or university have a specific programme for financing my Doctorate in France? If that's the case, it's often the best option when it comes to doing your Doctorate. Such programmes exist in particular in Mexico, China and Pakistan.

If no funding from your government is possible, you will find other possibilities here.

A large number of Doctorates are funded by French host universities, in the form of a doctoral fellowship, which is a work contract that lasts 3 years or takes the form of other work contracts.

1. If you wish to do a Doctorate in natural and technological sciences

You must apply for thesis subjects that have been published by French researchers.

You will find these subjects on the Campus France platform.

There are two types of subjects- subjects already funded by the host establishment (choose type: Contract), and subjects for which you must have your own funding (choose type: Grant).

Once you have found a subject that interests you, the only thing left to do is contact the researcher or doctoral school that published the subject.

*Note: In this case, you don't need to prepare a research project and then try to find a researcher in a French laboratory who may become your thesis supervisor, as in natural and technological sciences this operates in the other direction in France.

2. If you wish to do a Doctorate in the social sciences and humanities

First of all, check the Campus France subject platform. There are a few subjects in the arts and humanities.

If you can't find anything suitable, you will have to prepare a research project that you can then send to a researcher.

How to find a researcher to be a thesis supervisor?

First of all, remember that you must not propose a research project to every researcher in the field that interests you. For example, if your research project is in economics, don't send your proposal to every economist! They already receive an enormous number of requests like that and can't go through them all.

You must target specific people (this is also the rule in marketing). That means the theme of your research project must correspond to the specialty of the researcher. Don't send a proposal on a study of the history of Franco-Spanish relations to a historian specialising in the Far East!

After you've sent the proposal to the right person, you'll have to engage with the researcher in order to refine your thesis topic. To maximise your chances, you need to be flexible and ready to move away from your initial proposal.

And if you are able to obtain funding, say so at the start of your message.

Now the doctoral school has to approve it so you can enroll in a Doctorate. If funding is required by the doctoral school, it must be approved before you can enroll.

The annual registration fee for a Doctorate is €391 (2017/18 academic year). Even if you have a doctoral fellowship, you will have to pay the registration fee.