General Principles

The defense procedure is handled in parallel by:

We strongly recommend that you follow the procedure described on this page.
The main steps are the following  (the number of days for a typical retro-planning are given in brackets):

  1. Writing the thesis (D-150±50 )
  2. Composition and validation of the jury by the ED (D-70)
  3. Submission of manuscript to ADUM (D-50).
  4. Defense authorization
  5. Defense and oath

 

Note : In this page, the “director of the ED” means the Deputy-Director in charge of monitoring SU students.

 

1 - Writing the thesis

The dissertation is required legally to be written in French (Education Code), except in cases of international joint supervision if the agreement specifies another language. The director of the ED may grant, upon a duly reasoned request, a waiver for writing in English (CS 4 March 2013). This waiver is automatically accorded to non-French native speakers.

 

On the technical side, the use of LaTeX is strongly recommended, because of its ease in separating content and form, and dealing with many cross-references, figures, and, especially, equations. A LaTeX thesis template is proposed with specific packages aiming to make easier several tasks (including the front and back covers consistent with imposed standards) especially in view of the electronic submission of the thesis. To be download here.

In this case, assuming that you already know the language, it is In this case, it is recommended to attend the workshop “Electronic thesis in LaTeX” proposed by the EDPIF, twice a year, as part of training of doctoral college.

If you prefer to use a WYSIWIG word processor (*-office), you will benefit from using the style sheets proposedd on the university website (first button, entitled “Le manuscrit”).

 

2 - Composition and validation of the jury by the ED (D-70)

It is important to anticipate the formation of the committee and especially the choice of referees, on the one hand to be sure that they will be accepted by the ED , and also to retain a defense date sufficiently well in advance

 

The choice of committee members, including reporters, must comply with many rules to ensure, in the interests of the doctoral student, a maximum of impartiality and objectivity in the evaluation of the thesis:

These rules are summarized in this document.

 

The procedure is as follows:

  1. First establish, with your thesis advisor, a proposal of reporters and committee members.
  2. Enter the composition of the proposed committee in your ED personal page. Provide also the provisional defense date, title and a short abstract of your PhD work and update information about your “Publications” and additionnal PhD training (“Formation”).
  3. Once these fields filled out, click on the button "Soumettre" to submit the proposal to the director of the ED. Both you and your advisor will receive an email as acknowledgment of receipt.
  4. If necessary, after exchange with the ED's director, update the jury in accordance with the decision of the ED.
  5. After validation of the committee by the ED, you and your advisor will receive an email inviting you to declare your defense on ADUM. You will find the procedure for declaring your defense on ADUM on this page.

 

3 - Submitting your manuscript on ADUM

 

4 - Defense authorization

Once the rapporteurs have submitted their reports on ADUM, the thesis and doctoral school directors will validate them. You will then be able to retrieve the documents you need for your defense (Authorization for defense, minutes of defense and defense report) via your ADUM profile.

5 - Defense and oath

On this page, you'll find information on how the oral defense will be conducted.