The Jury

The composition of a doctoral thesis jury must imperatively respect the provisions of the decree of May 25, 2016 (articles 18 and 19) and the rules of the ED PHF:

1. The jury must include 4 to 8 members.
2. The rapporteurs must imperatively be Habilités à Diriger des Recherches or belong to one of the categories mentioned in 1° and 2° of article 16 of the decree of May 25, 2016.
   - Please pay attention to the titles and grades of the foreign rapporteurs likely to participate in the jury. A CV must be systematically provided for foreign rapporteurs.
   - In the case of work involving people from the socio-economic world who do not belong to the academic world, a third reporter, recognized for his or her expertise in the field, may be appointed on the proposal of the director of the doctoral school, after advice from the thesis director.
3. The rapporteurs are external to the ED PHF, UPHF, INSA HdF and ICL and have no involvement in the work of the doctoral student and the supervising team during the thesis.
4. At least 50% of the jury is composed of University Professors or equivalent (in accordance with the Ministry's list and Article 18 of the Order of May 25, 2016).
   - Attention to the titles and grades of foreign examiners likely to participate in the jury.
5. A balanced representation of women and men must be ensured. The concept of balance will be based on the reality of the gender distribution in each field. At least one member of each gender is required for a jury with 4-6 members and at least 2 for a jury with 7-8 members.
6. At least 50% of the jury is composed of members from outside the ED PHF, UPHF, INSA HdF and ICL.
7. A member from outside the ED PHF, UPHF, INSA HdF and ICL who has funded the thesis or published with the doctoral student will be considered on the same basis as the thesis supervisors.

Notes on jury composition

Note 1 : to be an examining member of a doctoral dissertation jury, one must hold the PhD. If this is not the case, it will be appropriate to request authorization from the UPHF research commission for the personality to be an examining member. If it is not possible to obtain the status of examiner, it is also possible to have the prospective personality participate as an "invited" member. An invited member sits in on the defense but does not have the right to vote and does not sign the documents relating to the defense. He/she is not counted as an examining member. For a jury with up to 6 members, the number of guest is limited to 2 and to 3 for a jury with 7 or 8 members.

Note 2 : it is advisable to ensure the conformity of the jury's constitution during the defense, i.e. that the members sitting on the jury are indeed those officially designated prior to the defense by the head of the institution issuing the diploma in order to avoid any administrative appeal that would jeopardize, in the end, the issuing of the diploma.

Precisions in the composition of cotutelle thesis juries

• According to Article 7 of the Order of May 25, 2016, the principles governing the constitution of the jury must be specified by the cotutelle agreement between a French institution and a partner institution. The basic principle is the respect of a balanced proportion of members, from each institution, appointed jointly by the contracting institutions.
•   It must include personalities from outside these institutions and the total number cannot exceed 8 (4 to 8 members). The half of the jury designated by the French institution must be specified.
•  The two rapporteurs need not be members of the half of the jury designated by the French institution. The rapporteurs are external to the ED PHF, UPHF, INSA HdF and ICL and to the partner institution. Rapporteurs hold an HDR or equivalent, they have no involvement in the work of the PhD student and the supervising team during the thesis.
•  In the absence of explicit precision in the cotutelle agreement, the ED will apply the spirit of the decree of May 25, 2016 on doctoral training on the half of the jury designated by the French institution. This " half jury" will then include 2 to 4 members (at least 50% professors or assimilated, at least 50% of members from outside the ED PHF, UPHF, INSA HdF and ICL and the partner institution and at least one member of each gender).

NB: changes are likely to be made for the 2021-2022 academic year.