France
The écoles doctorales ("Doctoral Schools") are educational structures similar in focus to graduate schools, but restricted at PhD level. These schools have the responsibilities of providing students with a structured doctoral training in a disciplinary field. The field of the school is related to the strength of the university : while some have two or three schools (typically "Arts and Humanities" and "Natural and Technological Sciences"), others have more specialized schools (History, Aeronautics, etc.).
Admission to a doctoral program requires a master's degree, both research-oriented and disciplinary focused. High marks are required (typically a très bien honour, equating a cum laude), but the acceptance is linked to a decision of the School Academical Board.
A large share of the funding offered to junior researchers is channeled through the école doctorale, mainly in the shape of three-years "Doctoral Fellowships" (contrats doctoraux). These fellowships are awarded after submitting a biographical information, undergraduate and graduate transcripts where applicable, letters of recommendation, and research proposal, then an oral examination by an Academical Committee.
Read more about this topic: Graduate School
Famous quotes containing the word france:
“In France one must adapt oneself to the fragrance of a urinal.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
““Eh Bien you like this sacred pig of a country?” asked Marco.
“Why not? I like it anywhere. It’s all the same, in France you are paid badly and live well; here you are paid well and live badly.””
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“The bugle-call to arms again sounded in my war-trained ear, the bayonets gleamed, the sabres clashed, and the Prussian helmets and the eagles of France stood face to face on the borders of the Rhine.... I remembered our own armies, my own war-stricken country and its dead, its widows and orphans, and it nerved me to action for which the physical strength had long ceased to exist, and on the borrowed force of love and memory, I strove with might and main.”
—Clara Barton (1821–1912)