VAE for PhD degree

To obtain a PhD degree without being a PhD student thanks to VAE – Validation of Learning through Experience, to get a recognition of his/her research activities, to have a better visibility of his/her aptitudes and competencies on the employment market, especially in the international context.

Information sessions

Presentation

People who have experience in research and have carried out original scientific works can apply for the validation of learning through experience in order to obtain a PhD degree.

Research may have been done outside the academic framework (for example, in R&D department of a private company).

This validation is possible, subject to the admissibility of the application, writing a dissertation and viva voce of the dissertation in front of the jury.

The dissertation of the VAE replaces the written thesis. The dissertation is a reflexive synthesis of the way in which the candidate has built his/her research posture.

The VAE being regulated, allows to apply without conditions concerning degrees, nationality, age.

There is no difference between the degree obtained as a PhD students and that obtained through a VAE. The way of obtaining is not mentioned on the degree.

The competencies of the doctorate degree are defined by this decree.

For an individual:

Recognition of his/her research activities
Better visibility of his/her aptitudes and competencies on the employment market, especially in the international context

For a company:

Management tool for employment and competencies : to insure coherence between the degree and the position held
Retaining high potentials in the company
In the context of growing globalisation, staying competitive internationally

Take into consideration that the VAE is not just an automatic conversion of experience into a degree. It is necessary to show his/her competencies and prove it. The VAE project requires a real personal investment.
Be available and perseverant. Plan more than one year to write and present your dissertation.

Get information about the VAE and the doctorate at UTC by reading the information on the UTC website.
Participate in an information meeting about the VAE and the doctorate by enrolling on this website: https://www.utc.fr/formations/formation-continue-et-vae/sessions-dinformations/.
Anticipate starting now how to get finance for your VAE.

Steps of the VAE

The UTC organises online information meetings that will allow you to get information without travelling. We also organise information meetings at our offices in Compiegne and Paris.

Get informed about the research themes of UTC and identify your PhD specialisation.

Get in touch with the laboratory linked to your chosen speciality. An agreement from the professor – researcher for the scientific supervision is necessary before the admissibility stage.

Doctoral school

The decision of admissibility is based on the admissibility file and the interview with the admissibility commission.

The UTC offers an optional guidance for the admissibility stage.

The admissibility file is first of all reviewed by the VAE service in order to verify the conformity of the candidature related to criterias of acceptance. At this stage, the VAE service verifies elements like diplomas, CV, work certificates, research activities report, publications, B1 English certification… Once this stage has been successfully passed, the admissibility file is then presented to the admissibility commission.

The commission is composed of the director of doctoral school, the head of VAE, two members of advisory board of the doctoral school (internal and external) and the scientific supervisor of the candidate.

For the interview, the candidate must do a 15 minute presentation with a power point support and then answer questions of the experts. The commission will evaluate the candidate capacity to finalise his/her VAE process.

A 3 hour package is planned to accompany the candidate during this admissibility process.

It includes :

Analysis of the admissibility file and 15 minute feedback
A mock presentation and feedback (1:30)

The admissibility file must provide the information allowing specialists to carry out a personalized study of the VAE project. An administrative admissibility decision as well as an opinion on the feasibility of the validation project will be issued.

Prepare the admissibility file

After the interview with the candidate, the committee decides on the acceptance of the request. This decision may be very favourable, favourable, reserved or unfavourable.

In case of unfavourable decision, the candidate is not allowed to pursue the VAE process at UTC. Obtaining a very favourable, favourable, or reserved decision does not prejudge in any way the final decision of the VAE jury.

The UTC offers a double guidance for the VAE. This guidance is assured by a pair of experts:

- VAE supervisor, an expert in analysis of competencies and work psychologist and

- scientific supervisor, a professor-researcher of the UTC holding an HDR (accreditation to supervise research), specialised in the field of the candidate’s activities.

The candidate must write a dissertation and present a viva voce of the dissertation to the VAE jury.

Following the VAE logic and that of the doctorate, the dissertation is composed of two parts:

Part one: Candidate’s feedback on the progression of the professional and personal experience as a researcher through analysis of the activities and the identification of competencies. Candidate must demonstrate the acquisition of competencies defined in the RNCP file. In brief, in this part, it is a reflexive synthesis on the way in which the candidate has built his/her posture.

The objectives of the guidance to writing a dissertation are :

Understand what is expected by the VAE jury
Reflexive feedback on his/her experience by returning to the past situations to distance themselves in order to obtain knowledge with new signification. This requires awarness which until now were automatic and often without signification.

The expert methodologic, specialist in competences analysis ensures that the candidate follows the requirements of the VAE process.

His/her missions are to:

Present the logic of the template of the dissertation to the candidate
Propose a method to describe and analyse the candidate’s activities
Help the candidate to identify his/her skills, to defend them and to formalize them in the dissertation with regard to the diploma concerned
Help the candidate to realise reflexive feedback of his/her experience

This part is prepared with the VAE supervisor. Nine interviews are proposed to the candidate for a total of 16 hours.

Part two: The synthesis of research works and its publications relative to the current state of knowledge in relation to the field of research. This part is prepared with the scientific supervisor, a professor-researcher of the UTC holding an HDR (accreditation to supervise research), specialised in the field of the candidate.

Interviews can take place online or at the UTC in Compiegne.

An accompaniment convention is signed up by the candidate, the UTC and financial third part eventually.

The candidate is enrolled administratively at the doctoral school of the UTC.

Interview 1 – (1 hour)

Presentation of the template of the dissertation
Expectations of the VAE jury

Interviews 2 and 3 – (2×2 hours)

Present the evolution of his/her experience and his/her motivations
Outline his/her professional project
Describe his/her activities linked to the diploma
Describe the places of his/her activities

Interviews 4, 5 and 6 – (3×2 hours)

Identify his/her competencies
Defend his/her competencies in relation to the requirements of the diploma
Critical distancing vis a vis his/her experience
Present his/her knowledge following the trainings

Interviews 7, 8 and 9 – (1 hour + 2×2 hours)

Advice for preparing the presentation in the front of the jury
Feedback on the presentation support
Mock presentation

Before viva voce, two reporters will evaluate the dissertation and write their reports. The president of the university will authorise the defense of the dissertation. The viva voce of the VAE dissertation are organised all along the year, except June, July, August. The viva voce of the VAE dissertation is similar to the viva voce of the thesis. The composition of the jury is as follow:

The director of the doctoral school or his/her representative duly designated – the president of the jury
A professor – researcher of the UTC, HDR – the reporter
A personality from outside of the UTC – the reporter
One or two personalities with PhD from outside of the UTC with at least fifty percent of the jury is composed of the university professors or assimilated.

The VAE jury deliberates and writes the viva voce report.

The validation can be total, partial or refused. If the validation is not total, we can request the candidate to rewrite the synthesis of his/her works or to provide complementary works (for example publish an article in peer reviewed journal).

To start

The preparation of the administrative file is a personal work. To download the administrative file of the UTC, we thank you for entering your email address and clicking on the access button below. It will allow us to identify people interested by the VAE. In which case we will send them additional information of VAE in form of newsletters, targeted information, etc. Only the authorised personnel of the Continuing Education and the Communication director of UTC have access to the candidates email address.

The legal treatment is your acceptance which you can withdraw at any moment by writing to fc@utc.fr

The email address is deleted 3 years after the date of your last contact.

In accordance to the European regulations 2016–679 named RGPD, you have the right to access, to rectify, and to delete data relating to you and the rights you can exercise at fc@utc.fr. You also have the right to limit the use of these data which can be exerciced at fc@utc.fr

For all questions related to the use of personal data you can contact the delegate of the UTC’s data protection (dpo@utc.fr). If you think that yours rights were not respected after contacting us, you can make a claim with the CNIL.