Professional PhD

Academic excellence, corporate impact

Successful graduates are awarded both a Professional PhD degree from SKEMA Business School and a French state doctoral degree conferred by Université Côte d’Azur (UniCA).

SKEMA’s faculty members are internationally renowned scholars who publish in leading academic journals and collaborate with organisations such as Renault, Saint-Gobain, and Square Management. The business school’s research centres and Chairs enable students to interact with leading researchers and corporate experts. This research environment prepares students to bridge academia and the corporate world.

The programme seeks highly qualified applicants whose research demonstrates strong potential for impact. Candidates must hold a Master’s degree in a relevant field. As the programme's primary admission pathway, CIFRE candidates receive funding from the Association Nationale de la Recherche et de la Technologie (ANRT) and the corporate partner. Tuition fees are fully waived, and SKEMA may also provide financial support for conference participation.

Programme content

To be enrolled in the Professional PhD and benefit from a tuition waiver, students must have obtained a CIFRE scholarship. Professional PhD students are expected to spend 50% of their time working on their PhD at SKEMA and 50% of their time working on their PhD with the corporate partner.

The coursework follows the requirements of the relevant École Doctorale (ED) in which the candidate is registered. For ED-DESPEG, this corresponds to 90 hours over three years.

Candidates may also take selected methodology courses from SKEMA’s PhD in Management programme. They are expected to begin working on their dissertation in the first year with their PhD supervisor and the corporate partner.

Students are affiliated with the research centre of their supervisor at SKEMA. They are expected to participate in research activities (e.g., seminar series) and present their research at peer-reviewed academic conferences. Opportunities to visit partner universities relevant to the thesis topic may also be offered conditionally, on approval from the corporate partner.