The defense

General principle:

The PhD supervisor evaluates when the thesis manuscript has the required quality to be submited to two reviewers. This criterion is decisive. Before continuing, please consult the page dedicated to the place of the PhD supervisor during the defense following the application of the decree of May 25, 2016.

  1. The steps must be initiated at least 10 weeks before the defense and will be done exclusively via the ADUM platform.
  2. Check on ADUM that you have validated the mandatory training hours
  3. When received, if the reviewers reports are positive, the process of PhD defense managed by the university is launched.
  4. If the University authorises the defense, the PhD defense documents will be available in ADUM.
  5. They must be returned promptly after the defense.
  6. Finally, any modifications of the manuscript requested by the jury must be made.
These steps result in the reverse scheduling below. Web addresses of forms are provided for UCA. For PSL use your ADUM account.

At least 10 weeks before the probable date of the defense: appointment of rapporteurs and jury

The doctoral student fills in the designation of the reviewers and the jury on his/her personal space ADUM in the tab " soutenances ". Once the defense request is finalized, it will be automatically sent to the thesis supervisor, then to the ED Director and to the University for validation.
Once the ED has validated the reviewers and the jury, the date of the defense and the composition of the jury cannot be modified. It is therefore important that the information entered at this stage is complete and accurate because it will automatically be transferred to the decree signed by the President who authorizes the defense. Also, the title of the thesis must correspond word for word to the title of the manuscript.

Rules for appointing reviewers (see note on jury composition (in French))

We remind here that the "arrêté du 25 mai 2016" promotes the parity in PhD and HDR juries. Without making it a constraint that could delay the defense due to the low number of women in our fields, the council of the ED STIC strongly supports this initiative and wishes to remind PhD supervisors that they are strongly encouraged to propose female colleagues as reviewers.

Reviewers must be "HDR" or more precisely:

  • Professors or considered as such by the National Council of Universities or of equivalent rank if they do not depend on the Ministry of National Education
  • or staff of higher education institutions, public research organizations and research foundations, with the HDR (Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches) diploma
  • Or, exceptionally, other holders of a doctorate, chosen on the basis of their scientific competence by the head of the University, on the proposal of the director of the doctoral school and after obtaining the aprobation of the scientific council of the University. In such a case, please fill in the derogation form, enclose the required documents and send them to the ED secretariat for submission to the CAc.
    Attention! The passage in CAc requires a longer processing time (add one month minimum). In this case, it is advisable to declare the jury at the latest 10 weeks + 1 month before the defense.
    New in 2024: Foreign researchers who cannot be assimilated to university professors and who are working in a country where there is no diploma equivalent to the HDR will automatically be considered as having the equivalent of a habilitation in direct research for the purpose of sitting on a thesis committee as reviewers, provided that they have been thesis supervisor for at least three doctoral students who have defended their thesis (decision of the CAc in French).
  • In order to preserve scientific integrity, EDSTIC asks that the reviewers have no common publications with the candidate.

Particular case: request to write a thesis and/or defense in english
For a request to write a thesis and/or defense in English, see the forms available on ADUM.

Rules for Jury Appointment (see note on jury composition (in French))

We remind here that the "arrêté du 25 mai 2016" promotes the parity inPhD and HDR juries. Without making it a constraint that could delay the defense, due to the low number of women in our fields, the council of the EDSTIC strongly supports this initiative and wishes to remind PhD supervisors that they are strongly encouraged to propose female colleagues as jury's members.

The criteria are as follows:

  • The jury must contain at least 4 members and at most 8 members (plus the invited members) and even if the thesis supervisor is not necessarily a jury member, it is the general practice and (s)he counts among the local members
  • At least half of the jury members must be chosen outside the doctoral school and outside the University delivering the diploma
  • At least half of the jury members must belong to "rangs A" researchers (research directors, Full Professors,...)
  • The doctoral supervisor is included in the composition of the jury and is taken into account in the ratio of internal to external members of the home institution or in the ratio of rank A to rank B respectively.

Beware, information given on this form are those of the official documents signed by the President of the University. No changes are possible after this form has been sent. Also, the title of the thesis can not be different on the manuscript.

Notes:

  • A note on the composition of defense juries (in French) has been written by Université Côte d'Azur.
  • A professor emeritus can be part of a PhD jury but doesn't count as a "rang A" and cannot be the president of the jury.
  • An invited member is not officially part of a jury and therefore does not appear in any official document of the defense.

Particular cases:

  • For a defense (all or part) in videoconference, please fill in the requested fields on ADUM, which will generate the proxies to be filled in by each member who will attend the defense in videoconference.
  • If the thesis is subject to a confidentiality request and/or the defense is held in camera, please fill in the fields requested on ADUM and the ad hoc forms.
  • European Doctorate is a "label" awarded by the University in addition to the Doctorate. The following 4 conditions are required:
    • At least two reviewers are professors belonging to two higher education institutions from two Member States of the European Community, other than the one which delivers the PhD.
    • At least one member of the jury must belong to a higher education institution in a Member State of the European Community other than the one which delivers the PhD.
    • A part of the defense must be given in a European Community language other than French.
    • The PhD must have been prepared, in part, during a stay of at least one 3 months in another Member State of the European Community (written proof required).
    Document for obtaining the European Label (in French) to be filled.

At least 8 weeks before the defense date: deposit of the manuscript on ADUM

  • The doctoral student deposits the manuscript of his/her thesis on ADUM, which will automatically be sent to the designated reviewers as well as to the University Library, which verifies the conformity of the electronic deposit.
  • The reviewers then have 5 weeks to prepare their report and deposit it on ADUM, at the latest 14 days before the date of the defense, under penalty of cancellation of the defense. The doctoral student has access to the reviewers’ reports in his/her personal ADUM workspace.
  • Please consult the dedicated page (in French only) for more details.

Few days before defense

If the reviewer reports are positive and the electronic submission is compliant, the Director of the ED and the President of the University will decide whether to authorize the defence.

The doctoral candidate will find in his·her workspace on ADUM:

  • The order of defense signed by the Presidency of the University,
  • The reports of the reviewers, (A copy of each report is emailed to all members of the jury),
  • The "procès-verbal" of the defense,
  • The form for the decision of the jury on the reproduction of the manuscript,
  • The report on the defense to be filled by the president of the jury,
  • In case of video-conference: the proxies to be signed before the defense by each member in video.

Before the defence, print out all of these documents, including the form for PhD prizes (which can be accessed via ADUM or here).

Defense and deliberation

The president of the jury shall be elected by the members of the jury before the oral presentation. (S)he must belong to rang A or equivalent. Please refer to the agreement in case of co-tutelle.

After the oral presentation,

  • The jury members sign the "procès-verbal" of the defense, except for the supervisors,
  • Members of the jury must write the report in French. The defence report is also signed by the supervisor(s). When the report states the decision of acceptance, it must be written that the decision has been taken by all jury members except for the supervisors. (No collage admitted for this document).
  • The president of the jury completes and signs the decision of the jury for the reproduction of the manuscript. see jury's opinion - instruction for use.
  • The president of the jury completes and signs the form for the thesis prizes.
  • Note: The role of the thesis supervisor is described in this note (in French).

At the end of the deliberations (where the invited members are not invited by default), the President of the Jury will return to the ED STIC secretariat within 15 days of the defence:

  • the "procès-verbal" of the defense,
  • the report on the defense,
  • the decision of the jury for the reproduction of the manuscript: Write the name of the president of the jury,
  • and, if applicable, the form for the thesis prizes.

And after...

  • If the jury asks for modifications, the student has a period of 3 months to make these modifications and send the new manuscript to the library of the University.
  • A certificate of diploma can be obtained upon request from ED STIC at least one week after the official documents have been deposited.
  • Ask the final diploma also at the records office ‘Scolarité Sciences’, at least 3 months after the defense.