Physics Doctoral School

In accordance with the Order of 25 May 2016, the thesis director or co-director must always hold an HDR. A person who does not hold an HDR may only be a co-supervisor. However, the Université Grenoble Alpes has set up a dispensation procedure, known as "agrément", which allows a person without an HDR who has already co-supervised a thesis to supervise a thesis (see Temporary authorisation to supervise a thesis without HDR ).

Thesis director/co-director

The thesis director must be affiliated with the ED PHYS and cannot exceed a supervision rate of 300% (i.e., 3 PhD students supervised at 100%). The thesis director may only supervise or co-supervise 5 PhD students at the same time. However, an exception may be made if the thesis supervisor temporarily exceeds the maximum supervision rate by recruiting a new PhD student, provided that they have a PhD student who is due to defend their thesis within two or three months.

Concerning the norms for the distribution of supervision rates, please consult the box at the bottom of the page.

In addition to the usual supervision tasks relating to the PhD student's "research" part, the thesis director's role is to :

• set up the Thesis Monitoring Committees (see Individual Monitoring Committee (CSI) section),
• assist the PhD student with the annual re-registration procedure (see Re-registration procedure section) and
• assist the PhD student with the defence procedure (see PhD defence procedure section).

The thesis supervisor must be aware of the various administrative procedures to which the PhD student is subject, in order to provide the best possible guidance. The thesis supervisor supports the doctoral student, a researcher in the making, both scientifically and administratively.

We would also like to remind you that any degree that is not obtained in accordance with the law is, by its very nature, legally enforceable. It is therefore of the utmost importance for a supervisor to ensure that his or her doctoral student complies with the law at all times, including, of course, during the defence.

Co-supervision of theses

For young researchers, we feel it is important to encourage teams to set up pairs of thesis supervisors as soon as possible, with an experienced HDR as director and a young recruit as co-supervisor. In this way, our young researchers can be in a position to prepare their HDR in the 5 to 7 years following their thesis.

However, we would stress that the role of the co-supervisor is to assist the thesis director, not to replace him or her. Concerning the norms for the distribution of supervision rates, please consult the box below.