PhD

To be enrolled in a doctoral program, candidates must hold a national master’s degree or another diploma conferring the grade of master, and have completed a training program establishing their aptitude for research.
Once the subject has been defined in collaboration with the thesis supervisor, the student entering the first year of doctoral studies applies for admission to the doctoral school to which the thesis supervisor belongs.

The decree of May 25, 2016 setting out the national framework for training and the procedures leading to the award of the national doctoral diploma defines the conditions for doctoral enrolment.

All ENSAPLV doctoral students are required to register twice:

• to the doctoral school (pedagogical registration) ;
• and with the ENSAPLV schooling department (administrative registration).

Once eligible, students pay their fees to the doctoral school and register administratively at ENSAPLV with the Post-Masters pedagogical manager, to obtain a student card that gives them access to ENSAPLV premises and its documentation center. This dual registration – pedagogical at the doctoral school and administrative at ENSAPLV – is compulsory.

The doctorate lasts three years. Re-registration is required for each new academic year (doctoral school and ENSAPLV).

The thesis supervisor must hold an Habilitation à Direire la Recherche (HDR) or a Doctorat d’Etat (PhD), and be a member of a research unit attached to a doctoral school. The potential thesis director examines and assesses the candidate’s motivation to engage in research. If the candidate’s application is accepted, the doctoral student becomes a full member of the director’s research unit, which provides him or her with all the resources needed to carry out the research.

Research structures at ENSAPLV

1. UMR CNRS/Ministry of Culture 3329 – Architecture Urbanisme Société : savoir, enseignement, recherche (AUSser)
   UMR AUSser research team attached to ENSAPLV:
   Architecture Histoire Technique Territoire Patrimoine (AHTTEP)
2. UMR CNRS/Ministry of Culture 7218 – Laboratoire Architecture Ville Urbanisme Environnement (LAVUE)
   UMR LAVUE research teams attached to ENSAPLV:
   Laboratoire Architecture Anthropologie (LAA)
   Laboratoire Espaces Transformation (LET)
3. URM CNRS/Ministry of Culture – Models and simulations for Architecture and Heritage (MAP)
   URM MAP research team attached to ENSAPLV:
   Modélisations pour l’Assistance à l’Activité Cognitive de la Conception (MAACC)
4. Host team, Ministry of Culture:
   Architecture, Milieu, Paysage (AMP)
5. Host team EA 7486, Ministry of Culture:
   Groupe d’études et de recherches Philosophie, Architecture, Urbain (GERPHAU)

Co-direction

Co-supervision is established between two universities: the doctoral student is supervised by two co-supervisors belonging to the same or two different universities, who jointly monitor his or her research work.
A thesis may be supervised by two professors or lecturers. In this case, the co-director’s disciplinary field is significantly different from that of the supervisor. If the co-supervisor works in another institution, an agreement is signed.
Co-supervision is a way of pooling the expertise of two research units and giving the doctoral student the possibility of receiving material and financial support from both units.
Although a co-supervision agreement must be signed by the two research supervisors concerned, only one administrative registration is required.
The defense is unique and takes place at the university where the doctoral student has made his or her administrative registration.
  

Co-supervision

For doctoral studies, it is possible to co-supervise theses between French universities and their counterparts in foreign countries. The aim of this procedure is to establish and develop scientific cooperation between French and foreign research units, by encouraging the mobility of doctoral students.
In the case of a co-tutored thesis, research work is carried out alternately in the two establishments. During the thesis and up to the defense, the doctoral student :

• is part of both establishments;
• pays tuition fees at just one establishment;
• alternates research stays at the two establishments;
• is scientifically supervised by a thesis director at each establishment.

A co-supervised thesis involves the signature of an agreement by all the partners involved: doctoral student, thesis director, doctoral school directors and university presidents.

There are several ways to finance a doctorate in Architecture. Here is a non-exhaustive list of thesis funding:
  

Doctoral contract

The doctoral contract is a public-law contract, conditional on enrolment in a doctoral program. Concluded for a three-year period, it is applicable to both universities and research organizations. It is recognized as genuine professional experience. Contract doctoral students will be recruited by public scientific, cultural and professional establishments, public administrative establishments for higher education, public scientific and technological establishments and other public administrative establishments with a statutory mission of higher education or research.
  

Industrial Research Training Agreements (CIFRE)

The CIFRE scheme subsidizes any company incorporated under French law that hires a doctoral student to work in a research collaboration with a public laboratory. The work will culminate in a thesis to be defended within three years.

CIFREs are fully funded by the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research, which has entrusted their implementation to the National Association for Research and Technology (ANRT).
Visit the ANRT website
  

Last but not least, there are other sources of funding for doctorates, from research organizations, local authorities (particularly the regions), foundations and associations that can finance doctoral students’ research, and these should not be overlooked.

coming soon