The degree program supervisors for the Doctoral School are Cécile Roucelle (PhD students from AIM et APC first and second year in 2024-25) or Irena Nikolic (for 3rd year PhD students at AIM, APC and LPNHE defending in 2025) and Cécile Prigent (for PhD at IPGP and ENS). These are the persons that PhD students should contact to prepare the Individual Training Project (PIF in French) and for the validation of training points.
Individual Training Project
As soon as you first enrol for your thesis, you have to prepare your Individual Training Project. This should be submitted to the course coordinator and the administration of the Doctoral School.
The project can be modified during the thesis as your career plan develops. The project should be discussed during each meeting of the thesis monitoring committee and at each re-enrolment.
At each of these stages, it will be possible to evaluate the relevance and the scheduling of your training courses during the three years of your thesis.
Organisation
The unit of account for doctoral training is the doctoral “Point” (also known as SED: like a doctoral exchange system!).
Since 1 September 2018, PhD students have to get a minimum of 15 points during the thesis,
- including at least 5 points of formal scientific training validated in the framework of the Doctoral School or the MASTERS,
- to have followed the training on ethics (1 point) , the Job day ( Journée Emplois) (1 point)
- and to have participated in the organisation of the congres des Doctorants ( 1 to 3 points).
This point-based system allows to validate courses of a very different nature.
However, not all courses are taken into account. Prior approval from the Doctoral School is essential.
The ED courses are systematically credited with a number of points from 1 to 6. Some conversion rules for other degree programs:
- For Doctoral Training Centers degree programs days , in general, 1 day = 1 point
- For MASTER courses, in general, 1 ECTS = 1 point (maximum 6)
- The workshops and summer schools are not validated since the 1 September 2018.
PhD students can earn up to 12 points per year.
All mandatory courses give you points (ethics, day jobs).
More details can be found below:
Registration and validation
Registration
- The training courses of the Doctoral School
- The timetables, summary and registration procedures are detailed on the page of each course. This is an online registration registration (Google sheet here) without e-mail confirmation.
- For courses relating to the STEP department, here you can check the latest training schedule and the teaching room.These courses may be part of the ongoing training for Technicians and Engineers if the course coordinator agrees, the management of the Doctoral School and the course coordinator.
- They are also open to PhD students from other doctoral schools in Ile de France with the agreement of the management of their Doctoral School.
- STPE MASTERS, GGG and Field Training
- The courses are mainly held during the 1st semester and start around 10 September. A course presentation session takes place on the first week of September.
- All field courses are selected at the beginning of the academic year.
- Enroll
- The second semester in-depth courses of the NPAC Masters are validated at the doctoral school and take place over two weeks in February.
- To register, you must send an e-mail to your course coorinator and to the NPAC Masters administration, whose address can be find on this page.
- PhD graduate-oriented courses are listed here
The selection of further courses is made after consultation with the supervisor and subject to prior approval by the degree program supervisor.
In any case, the PhD student shall inform the Secretariat of the Doctoral school in advance.
For all the degree programs offered by other doctoral schools of the Paris region, it is necessary to obtain the agreement of the degree programs manager of the Doctoral School offering the course, the number of places may be limited.
Validation
PhD students can earn up to 12 points per year. The validation of courses offered by the Doctoral School is carried out by the degree program supervisor of each component, on the basis of attendance at all the courses associated with a course. List of validated courses (PDF or Word ) is part of the necessary thesis defence documents. It is recommended you discuss the individual training project and the list of training courses already taken by the PhD student to each thesis follow-up committee. It is also recommended to attach the list of courses followed to each thesis follow-up committee report, as it is essential for each registration within the department (“inscription pédagogique”)
- For the validation of courses not offered by the Doctoral School, the module manager gives the student at the end of the training a signed CERTIFICATE.
- Procedure for validating NPAC MASTERS modules:
- Each of the in-depth courses corresponds to 3 ECTS, thus 3 training points. Attendance during all courses is necessary for validation.
-
- Procedure for validating STPE MASTERS modules, GGG:
Each of the in-depth courses corresponds to 3 ECTS, thus 3 training points.
- For other training modules from UP, SU and PSL:
1 day = 1 point
- Number of points = 1/2 (Number of days) reduced to the next whole number and limited to 6 points during the thesis.
- (for theses started before 1 September 2018: Summer School and Workshop
- Registration shall be carried out after consultation with the degree program supervisor and with the agreement of the Director of the Doctoral School before enrolment on the Summer School. The PhD student will forward the program of the symposium prior to registration.
- For validation, the agreement of the Directorate of ED, a certificate of attendance and the programme of the School or workshop will be requested.
- The workshops and summer schools are validated for 50% of the duration and have a maximum of 6 points. A total of 10 points can be earned by attending workshops during the thesis. (Number of points = 1/2 (Number of days) reduced to the next whole number). Example: a 5-day summer school corresponds to 3 research points. Summer schools from 12 to 21 days validate 6 points.
If you have contractual teaching duties
Since 1 September 2020, PhD students with contractual teaching duties have an obligation to follow and validate at least 2 days of training in pedagogy (such as those offered here), whether in Earth Sciences or Physics. These compulsory courses will be validated by the doctoral school.
In addition, each year of teaching gives you one point per year.
Translation carried out by the Masters 2 ILTS team
