From the launching of your defense to the diploma delivrance
Thesis > Defence
The information below is valid for theses to be defended before December 31, 2024.
Before the defence
Authorisation to defend a thesis is granted by the president of UBFC, upon proposal by the thesis supervisor and notice of the doctoral school director.
The procedure must be launched on ADUM at least two months before the provisional defence date, and includes several steps:
· Designation of reporters
· Proposal of a jury
· Electronic filing of the thesis manuscript before defence
· Requesting for being authorised to defend
You must prepare your defence with your thesis supervisor, and then enter the details in your ADUM profile.
The sample cover page for your manuscript is available here and in your personal ADUM space.
The defence day
You will need to bring with you the documents for the jury, which will be available in your personal ADUM space as soon as you are authorized to defend.
In camera thesis defence
In exceptional cases, defence may be held in camera for confidentiality reasons. In that case, the thesis supervisor will send the DS the request form for authorisation to defend a thesis in camera, for the Doctoral School director to give his/her recommendation and the president of UBFC to make a decision.
Confidentiality agreements for the reviewers, the jury members and eventual guests are at your disposal in your ADUM personal space if you did check the “confidential thesis” box while preparing your defence. If you can’t find these documents, please get in touch with your doctoral school.
Total or partial videoconference defence
If one, several or all of the members of the jury are unable to attend, the defence can be done totally or partially by videoconference. This must be indicated at the time of launching your defence procedure in ADUM.
After the defence
The defence documents must be submitted to the secretariat of your doctoral school within 2 weeks.
Once these documents have been submitted, your certificate of achievement will be issued.
You must submit your final thesis manuscript within a maximum of 3 months, after making any corrections requested on the day of the defence and updating the cover page (name of jury president).
Submission of the final manuscript triggers the publication and issue of your diploma.
Dissemination of your thesis
Defence institutions have an obligation to disseminate theses via their intranet.
If your thesis is under a confidentiality clause, the obligation will be applied once the confidentiality clause has reached its legal end.
Your thesis will also be mentioned in various catalogues or portals ; institutions habilitated to issue the doctoral diploma are legally obliged to mention defended theses.
The files you will submit will be transmitted to the Centre Informatique National de l’Enseignement Supérieur (CINES), which archives doctoral theses in a perennial way. Safekeeping of theses is mandatory, even if they are under a confidentiality clause.
In addition to regulatory obligations, you may opt for the free dissemination of your thesis on the internet.
You will choose to do so or not when you fill in the defence documents.
We invite you to read the documents below to guide you with your defence procedure:
Two documents are handed to you after defence: a certificate of achievement and your diploma.
The certificate of achievement
Your thesis supervisor or the defense president must hand in the defence transcript within 15 days of defence. Then only will it be possible to issue your certificate of achievement and hand it to you.
PLEASE MAKE GOOD NOTE that no duplicate will be issued.
The diploma
The diploma will be handed to you on condition that:
- your thesis supervisor or defense president hands in the defence transcript (as quickly as possible following defence)
- you file an electronic copy of your thesis manuscript on ADUM, and hand in a hard copy of it at your DS, and complete in the “Filing of a defended thesis form” on ADUM
Once your diploma has been issued and signed by the Rectorate, you will be contacted for you to go and withdraw it.
The issuance of the diploma follows the procedure described here.
Legal filing and dissemination of the thesis
Regulatory obligations
Defence institutions have an obligation to disseminate theses via their intranet.
If your thesis is under a confidentiality clause, the obligation will be applied once the confidentiality clause has reached its legal end.
Your thesis will also be mentioned in various catalogues or portals; institutions habilitated to issue the doctoral diploma are legally obliged to mention defended theses.
The files you will submit will be transmitted to the Centre Informatique National de l’Enseignement Supérieur (CINES), which archives doctoral theses in a perennial way. Safekeeping of theses is mandatory, even if they are under a confidentiality clause.
Dissemination on the internet
In addition to regulatory obligations, you may opt for the free dissemination of your thesis on the internet.
You will choose to do so or not when you fill in the “Filing of a defended thesis” form.
The route followed by your thesis
What you will have to do after defence
Within a maximum of three months after the defense, you must deposit your thesis manuscript for archiving and distribution.
You deposit the final electronic version in your personal ADUM space, then a paper version of the manuscript at the secretariat of your doctoral school. You fill in the thesis submission form on ADUM, which contains information about the thesis (metadata, abstracts, keywords), bibliographic information and a certificate of electronic conformity. A certificate of corrections is also attached. Indeed, the jury may ask for corrections after the defense. These corrections must be made by yourself and certified by your thesis director.
IMPORTANT : It is this deposit which initiates the procedure for printing the diploma. Otherwise, the administrative office does not receive any information allowing it to print the diploma.