A French government report to improve the value of doctorates in France

The “Recommendations for the recognition of the doctorate in business and society” report written by Sylvie Pommier, former president of the Réseau national des collèges doctoraux, and Xavier Lazarus, associate director of the Elaia investment fund, Entitled, gives leads for “an ambitious revamp of the position of doctorate degree in our society”. In December 2023, the French Ministers for Higher Education and Research and for Industry asked the authors of the report to “strengthening existing measures and introduce new ones”, with three main objectives: increase the share of doctorate graduates among researchers in companies and the share of engineers with a doctorade; provide more support for doctorate holders in their career; and improve the perception of doctorate degrees.

Current perception is fairly negative

Authors first point out what they call “France’s lag with its international competitors in terms of professional integration of Doctorate graduates”. The report explains that with 1% of doctorate holders aged 25 to 34 years old, France is lagging behind compared with the average of OECD countries (1.3%), but also Switzerland (3%), the USA (2%), Germany (1.6%) or the UK (1.5%). And the gap seems to grow wider. According to the report authors, “the number of doctors trained each year has increased in most OECD countries, while it has stalled in France”. Over 10 years, between 2011 and 2020, the number of PhDs rose by 43% in China, 19% in India and almost 7% in the United States, while it fell by 17% in France.

However, as the report observes, if we put the rate of growth in the number of doctoral students into perspective with the rate of growth in the working population, these “raw figures” are somewhat moderate, but they also “highlight the dynamics at work in other countries and the major efforts made by some to strengthen their research and higher education potential”. 

Cultural change at work

Noting that “the presence of doctorate holders in the private sector also remains limited”, with only 11% of researchers in companies, compared with engineers who make up 56% of this population, the ministers who commissioned the report emphasise that “this situation calls for a cultural change”.

However, given all the measures already taken in France “to improve the attractiveness of doctorates and the conditions under which they are awarded”, the priorities are now to focus on the downstream aspects of doctoral training, with a double objective: to increase the share of doctorate holders among researchers in companies, and to promote the recognition of doctorate in the socio-economic world.

On the basis of this report, the French government should now improve doctorates’ value in France, “beyond the academic world, through coordinated action on structural aspects, training and the perception of doctors by economic players”.

Tangible measures already taken

To achieve this, among the recommendations put forward in the report, the ministers have adopted three major measures that will take tangible form with strong actions:

• improve the value of doctorate degrees, by introducing a “European Doctorate Day” to highlight excellence, successes and training opportunities in all European higher education and research entities;
• improve the bridge between doctoral training and employment, by creating “a national platform dedicated to doctorates and the employment of doctors”, which will make it possible to “adjust the framework for doctoral training”, in order to “foster relations with the economic sectors” and “involve representatives of employment sectors more effectively in doctoral colleges”;
• deepen the bridges between engineering training and research, by encouraging “pre-doctoral courses for engineering students and facilitating their integration into the national research ecosystem”.

The French Minister for Higher Education emphasised that the report’s diagnosis, together with these concrete recommendations, will help to enrich “the Ministry’s roadmap to strengthen the links between public research and the business world and to offer more career opportunities to our PhDs”. An opinion shared by the minister of industry that also praises the release of the report which provides “leads that can quickly be adapted to improve synergies between research and industry”.