38 PhDs and PhD graduates

At the start of the 2015-16 academic year, 74,450 students were enrolled on a PhD programme. The number of doctoral students enrolled has been falling since 2009. 14,500 PhDs were awarded, stable over the last three years. Approximately three PhD students out of 4 enrolled in the first year receive funding for their thesis.

The survey on doctoral schools carried out by MENESR counted 74,450 students enrolled on a PhD programme at the start of the 2015-16 academic year. This number was 7% less than in the academic year 2009-10. The fall in the number of PhD students mainly concerns social sciences (law, economics, management, sociology, anthropology, etc.), - 9% between 2010 and 2015, and human sciences and humanities (literature, languages, arts, history, Physical Education and Sports Science and Techniques etc.), -13% between 2009 and 2015. It was considerably less marked in scientific fields of education (-3%) (chart 38.01).

The fall in the number of PhD students, the majority of whom are enrolled at university, is essentially due to the decrease in initial enrolments on PhD programmes during this period (chart 38.02). Nearly 17,100 students enrolled on PhD programmes for the first time in the academic year 2015-16, which was 11% less than in 2010-11. This change affects all scientific fields apart from biology, medicine and healthcare, where initial enrolments remained relatively stable during this period.

Only 37% of students enrolled on the first year of a PhD programme at university had been enrolled on a Master's course the previous year (table 38.04). Over half had not been enrolled at university (56%). These included students holding foreign degrees, students resuming their studies after a break of at least one year or those enrolled in non-university engineering schools.

At the start of the 2015-16 academic year, 73% of PhD students enrolled in their first year and whose financial situation was known received some form of funding for their thesis (table 38.05). The majority of PhDs that were funded received public funding, such as a doctoral contract accredited by the French Ministry of Education, Higher Education and Research (MENESR) (34%), funding from a research body (10%) or from a local authority (8%). Industrial Agreements for Training through Research (CIFRE) represented 9% of funded PhD and funding for foreign doctoral students represented 18%.

In the 2014 calendar year, 14,540 PhD were awarded. Half of PhD covered scientific fields, 20% human sciences and humanities and 14% social sciences.

The number of PhDs awarded annually increased between 2009 and 2012. This number fell in 2013 and 2014 before rising again in 2015, which therefore meant that they were virtually stable over three years. The number of PhDs awarded in 2015 however remained higher than the number of PhDs awarded in 2010 (+ 6%) (chart 38.03).

The average length of theses, 48 months in 2015, is beginning to fall. The proportion of theses completed in less than forty months increased from 35% to 41% between 2010 and 2015, whereas the number completed in forty months to six years fell from 53% to 47%. The proportion of theses completed in more than six years remained stable (11%).

Alexis Boinet, Isabelle Maetz & Odile Wolber