The doctorate through continuing education
The doctorate is not reserved for students in initial training. Working professionals can also pursue a PhD through continuing education, whether to deepen their expertise, build research skills, or move towards senior positions.
Their pathway is governed by a precise regulatory framework and offers arrangements adapted to professional constraints, along with suitable funding options .
Why prepare a doctorate through continuing education?
- Innovating in your field: the research work carried out while preparing the doctorate can address questions arising from your professional practice, issues specific to your sector of activity, and/or fit within the company's R&D strategy. Beyond this, training through research helps develop skills that are useful throughout your career, to innovate, respond to emerging problems, draw on creative resources, and so on.
- Benefiting from an academic and professional network: a doctoral project undertaken through continuing education is a form of partnership research, and allows you to establish a collaboration with an academic research laboratory, gain access to public research equipment and infrastructure, and to a network of researchers in your field in France and internationally.
- Developing recognised expertise: the title of Doctor adds value when progressing towards management, R&D or consultancy positions, particularly for employees working in an international context.
Feel free to explore the thesis topics and supervision offers proposed by researchers for inspiration, and to contact a doctoral school to discuss the feasibility of your project and get guidance.
Regulatory framework
In France, the doctorate through continuing education is governed by the same academic requirements as a standard doctorate: originality of the work, contribution to research, and a defence before a panel of examiners. However, it is designed to adapt to the needs of professionals:
- Enrolment: candidates must hold a qualification conferring Master's-level status (or equivalent) and demonstrate (Opens a new window) relevant professional experience.
- Duration: preparation may be spread over a longer period ( (Opens a new window) up to 6 years), with the option of adjusting the pace of work and preparing the thesis part-time.
- Organisation: the work may be carried out partly in the academic laboratory and partly elsewhere, for example in the employer's research centre. The thesis may be jointly supervised, with a thesis supervisor attached to the doctoral school and a co-supervisor or named contact at the employer.
Doctoral schools and accredited institutions validate continuing education thesis projects, checking their feasibility and their alignment with the candidate's professional objectives. The various arrangements adopted are set out in the (Opens a new window) individual training agreement.
Examples of pathway arrangements
Several arrangements are possible to help balance professional life and doctoral studies:
- Part-time: research hours spread over several years, with an adjusted workload.
- Recognition of prior achievements: drawing on professional experience as part of the thesis (e.g. research work already carried out, data that can be collected within the company).
- Training pathway, online courses: the supplementary training pathway can be adapted to take account of experience already gained, with the option of taking supplementary training remotely.
- Collaboration agreement: collaboration between the university and the employer to incorporate part of the professional activity into the doctoral project.
A concrete example: a manager working in a company can carry out a thesis on a topic related to their sector (e.g. technological innovation, the ecological transition, management), drawing on internal data and benefiting from adjusted working hours.
Funding options
Several schemes can be used to fund a doctorate through continuing education:
- Doctoral contract: the doctoral contract is not reserved for students in initial training. It is entirely possible to prepare a doctorate under a full-time doctoral contract after several years of professional experience. However, the doctoral contract, whether public-law or private-law, does not allow a thesis to be prepared part-time.
- Employer support: some employers provide financial support for their employees' doctoral projects, full-time or part-time, particularly where these align with their R&D strategy. In this case, companies may benefit from the research tax credit. They may also support these projects through skills-based philanthropy or doctoral philanthropy, provided they do not claim anything in return.
- Professional training leave (CFP): this leave allows you to (Opens a new window) temporarily suspend your professional activity to focus on doctoral training, with partial continuation of salary.
- Dedicated doctoral programmes: specific forms of support exist for doctoral candidates in continuing education, depending on the region or sector of activity. Examples include the 'thesis post' funding offered by the Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale, aimed at medical residents, assistant clinical heads (CCA) or hospital-university assistants (AHU).