Follow-up of the doctoral program
These days, organized for doctoral students at the beginning of their first year of thesis, have the following main objectives
to give doctoral students all the necessary information on the progress and organization of the doctoral program (thesis committee and follow-up of the thesis project, training, criteria and methods of defense, timetable).
to encourage and develop contacts and exchanges between doctoral students of the same class as well as with doctoral students of previous classes.
to initiate the follow-up of the doctoral project by giving doctoral students the opportunity to present their thesis project in the form of a poster and to discuss it informally.
Each year, researchers and teacher-researchers from the ED, representatives of the doctoral students as well as doctoral students from previous years are invited to these days.
Each year, a colloquium is organized for all doctoral students and their supervisors, during which oral and poster presentations are given, presenting the research themes and the main results. On this occasion, the doctoral students can invite personalities from the scientific or industrial world to present their respective vision of research. This colloquium is both a meeting and exchange place for all the PhD students of the ED and an applied training in written and oral communication. It takes place over a day and a half and is organized jointly by the PhD students and the ED pedagogical team.
The thesis advisory committee (Comité de Suivi Individuel de Thèse or CSI) participates in the scientific and pedagogical monitoring of the thesis. It ensures that the thesis is carried out in good conditions. The missions and functioning of the CSI are described in the decree of August 26, 2022.
The CSI is composed of a tutor, a scientific expert and a representative of the ED. The tutor and the scientific expert are proposed by the PhD student in consultation with the thesis director, the ED representative is appointed by the ED. The members of the committee cannot belong to the team/group in which the doctoral student is doing his/her thesis, and at least one of the members of the committee must be external to the unit/laboratory and the institute in which the doctoral student is working. All researchers and teacher-researchers belonging to teams affiliated to the ED may be asked to participate in CSIs as representatives.
The committee meets at least three times during the thesis: a first time at the end of the first year of the thesis (between April and June), a second time in the middle of the second year (between January and March) and a third time in the middle of the third year of the thesis (between January and March). These meetings take place in the presence of the thesis director. The objective is to review the scientific progress, the progress of the supervision, the training courses followed and the professional project. The committee must also give an opinion on the re-registration for the following academic year and, for the 3rd year committee, on the request for derogatory registration in the 4th year of the thesis. Additional meetings of the committee can be organized if necessary.
The procedure for these meetings is as follows:
- presentation of the work by the PhD student (10-15 min for the first committee, 30-35 min for the following ones)
- scientific discussion and discussion on the professional project and training
- separate interviews with the thesis director on the one hand and the doctoral student on the other.
The organization of the meetings is entirely managed by the doctoral student who must contact the persons concerned sufficiently in advance to respect the dates indicated by the ED. One week before the meeting, the doctoral student sends the completed "doctoral student report" form to the committee members and to the ED (edcdv@sorbonne-universite.fr).
At the end of the meeting, a report of the committee is written by the representative of the ED with the assistance of the expert and of the tutor and sent to the PhD student and to his/her thesis director for signature. This report must in particular give the committee's opinion on the progress of the thesis project, the achievements at the time of the meeting, and any difficulties encountered. The reports are read by the members of the pedagogical team. In case of problems, the director of the ED contacts the representative of the ED, the doctoral student and his/her thesis director.
NEW: From the 1st of january 2025, the student's report and the committee report must be uploaded on ADUM in a single PDF file by the ED representative not later than 3 weeks after the meeting.
Standard forms to download:
Useful reading:
Handbook for CSI wrote by the Réseau National des Collègues Doctoraux*