Glossary
- Dean (doyen) :
at Sorbonne University, the dean is the head of the faculty and represents it as part of the university in its relations with third parties.
- Deferred :
refers to a candidate who has failed an examination and must retake it in a subsequent session.
- Deposit (Dépôt de garantie) :
sum of money paid to a landlord or real estate agent. It corresponds to one or two months’ rent and is refunded at the end of the lease. The refund may be partial if the flat is damaged during your stay.
- Doctoral college :
a Sorbonne University service that supports and coordinates the activities of the university’s 23 doctoral schools and provides personalised support to international PhD students on mobility programmes. The doctoral college organises cross-disciplinary training to support PhD students throughout their studies, encourages international mobility and develops initiatives to facilitate students’ integration into the workplace. It manages the admissions, enrolment and graduation of PhD students.
- Doctoral contract :
fixed-term public-law employment contract concluded between a PhD student and the university where they are registered (such as Sorbonne University, for example). PhD students under contract have the status of non-tenured government employees and their remuneration is set annually by a decree issued by the Ministry of Higher Education and Research.
- Doctoral school :
university structure that organises and supervises the training of PhD students. Sorbonne University’s doctoral schools form the Doctoral College. Each of them comprises several laboratories or research teams in the same scientific field (e.g. engineering sciences, human and social sciences, life sciences, etc.). Each PhD student is attached to a doctoral school and a research laboratory and is supervised by a thesis director.
- Doctorate :
this is the equivalent of eight years’ study after the French baccalaureate (secondary school leaving certificate), and follows on from the bachelor’s degree (baccalaureate +3 years) and the master’s degree (baccalaureate + 5 years). The doctorate is awarded after three years of research, following the defence of a thesis based on original body of scientific work.
