Start a PhD

At ULiège, doctoral training encourages and promotes the development of knowledge, excellence, creativity, innovation, interdisciplinarity, intersectorality, presence in the world and integration into society.

Doing a doctorate at ULiège means training for research through research at a university that is committed to enabling doctoral students to carry out their research training in the best possible conditions, as it has officially committed to do by signing the European Charter for Researchers. It also means benefiting from ongoing support from your supervisors and administrative staff to facilitate your doctoral studies while promoting your scientific and professional development.

Daring to pursue a doctorate

The doctorate is an exciting intellectual and human adventure, but it's important to be well-prepared so as to do it in the best possible conditions. With your Master's degree in hand, you're asking yourself a lot of questions about the doctorate, as are many young graduateswho want to explore the theme of their dissertation in greater depth, who have been approached by a professor or who are wondering about their career plans and future.

ULiège's RISE (Recherche, Innovation, Support, Entreprises) department offers several tools to give you an overview of doctoral studies and help you make your choice:

• The Brochure: 10 questions pour Oser le doctorat,
• The video series "Oser le doctorat",
• An annual Q&A session, usually held in May.

Need one last helping hand to get started? Check out Certificat de préparation au projet doctoral (CUPPD)

Registering for a doctorate

Have you met the prerequisites for admission to the doctoral program? Admission to ULiège doctoral programs is based on an open, fair and transparent recruitment process.

There are two ways to proceed:

• Propose a well-thought-out and planned research topic. The research topic can be proposed by the doctoral student himself, who can ask a professor or an experienced doctor to supervise the work and become its promoter.
• To pursue a research topic proposed by a promoter and integrated into the research conducted within his or her research unit (UR).

Whether you propose a topic or choose to work on one of the UR's thesis topics, you must have confirmation that a professor or senior researcher at ULiège agrees to accompany you throughout your PhD. You will then discuss the financing of your thesis with your sponsor, an essential point before starting. Your choice of research topic will define the faculty with which you will be associated.

Are you planning an international career?find out more at co-supervision.

All that remains to be done is to obtain authorization from the doctoral college in the field concerned. You will need to register twice at the same time:

• one for doctoral training,
• one for the doctorate,

Only one minerval is payable. For doctoral students and ULiège staff (including doctoral students financed by the FNRS and associated funds), registration is free of charge.

Registration procedure

Starting the doctorate

Registration officially marks the start of the doctoral program.this internationally-focused course alternates between activities linked to doctoral training, research (including publications and scientific communications) and thesis writing, leading to the final stage, the defense.

All doctoral students starting their thesis have questions and fears about what lies ahead. ULiège's RISE (Research, Innovation, Support & Enterprise) department has set up a number of resources and training courses to help them. Pars-en-thèse, Let's start a PhD, CUPPD and Zen-en-thèse are just a few examples.

Find out more about ULiège training courses for researchers at all levels of their career