DOC. 13683/CA/06.07.2005

GENERAL REGULATIONS IN RELATION TO THE PREPARATION OF A PH.D THESIS Wallonia – Europe University

SECTION I : DEFINITIONS AND OBJECT

Article 1 §1 - The following terminology is used in the enforcement of the present regulations :  Decree : the decree of March 31, 2004 definings higher education, promoting its integration into the sphere of higher education in Europe and stipulating how universities are to be refinanced.  Academy : The Wallonia – Europe University Academy, made up of the University of Liège (ULg) and the Gembloux Agricultural University (FUSAGx).  Graduate College : Graduate College recognized by the French-speaking Community of Belgium. There are 20 Graduate Colleges, one per field 1.  Ph.D training : corresponds to 60 credits, and confers a high-level scientific and professional qualification. Students take the training in an FNRS Graduate College or a recognized by the FNRS. This training leads to the delivery of a research training certificate.  Faculty : Each Faculty of the University of Liège, the Jean Constant School of Criminology, the Institute for Human and Social Sciences, the HEC School of Management, and FUSAGx, the Gembloux Agricultural University.  College : The jury for the doctoral program of study as defined by Article 68§1 of the decree.  Jury : A student's specific jury as defined by Article 69§3 of the decree.

§2 - The doctoral examination consists of the following :  The writing of an original thesis whose form, structure, length and language employed are as defined by each faculty's doctoral regulations, or the writing of an essay in which the candidate demonstrates, in compliance with these same doctoral regulations, the significance of a coherent set of publications and other work of which s/he is the author or co-author; and

 The public presentation of this work during which the candidate will underline its qualities, originality and accessibility to the general public.

In accordance with faculty regulations (see section IX), the student's jury may decide to proceed, before the public presentation of a thesis, with a private defense of the work in order to determine its admissibility.

Doctoral studies shall include a total 2 of at least 180 credits acquired after the completion of at least 300 credits leading to a master's degree. Of these 180 credits, 60 may be acquired in the course of doctoral training (see Article 7 below).

§3 - The object of the present regulations is to determine the general conditions permitting access to doctoral studies, and to ensure that said studies and the diverse work undertaken in the preparation of a thesis leading to the obtaining of a Ph.D degree take place in an organized and satisfactory manner within the Academy.

1 The Graduate colleges are as follows : Philosophy – Theology – Languages and Letters – History, Art and Archeology – Art of Building and Urban Planning – Information and Communication – Political and Social Sciences – Legal Sciences – Criminology – Economics and Business Administration – Psychology and Educational Sciences – Medical Sciences – Veterinary Science – Dental Sciences – Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences – Movement Sciences – Sciences - Agronomical Sciences and Biological Engineering – Engineering Sciences – Arts and Art Sciences. 2 Independently of the length of the doctoral studies.

1 . SECTION II : THE COLLEGE

Article 2 : Designation and composition

§1 - Every two years, a Faculty shall form a jury comprised of members of its academic and scientific personnel. Members must possess a Ph.D and have written a thesis. A Faculty may decide to create several such colleges by field of study, department or division. Moreover, several Faculties may decide to create a joint college. If there are several colleges within the same Faculty, said Faculty may create a body responsible for coordinating the work of these colleges.

§2 - Each college shall appoint a president and a secretary from among its members.

§3 - The college is responsible for the following :  the admission 3 of candidates as well as the evaluation of both previous academic work and related experience;  the designation of a promoter and/or co-promoter;  the scientific monitoring of students throughout the duration of their studies.

The college recommends to the Faculty the names of potential members of the thesis committee (Section VI) and the student's jury (Section VI).

§4- The College shall examine the state of advancement of a student's work every year on the basis of the thesis committee's report. It will notify the Registrar's Office of its decision to authorize or refuse the student's re-registration for the following academic year.

§5 - In accordance with the decree, the college may set up commissions comprised of at least three members, i.e. the president and the secretary of the college plus a representative of the academic authorities, in order to fulfil its mission regarding admission and the evaluation of previous academic work and related experience.

§6 - The college is the interlocutor between the student and members of the thesis committee. In accordance with Article 19, it may deal with any dispute between the two parties until a jury has been designated.

§7- The college can only deliberate legitimately if at least more than half of its members are present. Members may not abstain from voting and decisions are made by absolute majority vote of members present. In the case of an equal vote, the president will cast the deciding vote.

Article 3 : The doctoral bureau

A bureau is set up within the Academy.

This bureau is comprised of the presidents of each college. It is attended by representatives of the central administration of the member universities of the Academy.

The bureau shall appoint a president and a secretary from among its members.

3 From the academic point of view.

2 SECTION III : ACCESS TO DOCTORAL STUDIES

Article 4 : Degrees required The college or the commission created for that purpose shall decide whether a candidate may be admitted into a doctoral program on the basis of criteria defined by the decree (Articles 55 and 56) 4 or of potential complementary criteria defined by the faculty regulations.

Article 5 : Pass with distinction in the master's program Students will not be admitted into a Ph.D program unless they have received a distinction 5 at least once in the course of their master's program.

Article 6 : Research subject and sponsoring Students must have defined their research subject to a sufficient degree before being accepted into a Ph.D program. They must also provide written proof that their research project is sponsored by a member of the faculty. This sponsor may be a member of the or the holder of a Ph.D who has written a thesis or an individual who has passed the higher education “agrégation”.

Article 7 : Ph.D training §1 - Candidates must obtain a certificate of doctoral training during the course of the preparation of their thesis, unless an exception is made by the college with justification. The college may decide that a student must pass his/her doctoral training prior to being allowed to present the Ph.D thesis.

In any event, doctoral training will count for 60 credits in the context of the Ph.D program as a whole.

§2 - By way of example, the Ph.D training program may consist of the following :  A series of courses or seminars, participation in scientific symposia, conferences, workshops or any other training judged equivalent;  learning or practicing scientific communication through the writing or presentation of projects, articles and scientific papers;  working as a up to a maximum of 6 credits.

§3 - For the time being and until the creation of training specifically designed for Ph.D students, candidates will have to obtain a DEa or DEs diploma unless the college decides otherwise, in which case its decision must be justified. The college may require that students hold a DEa or DEs before being allowed to present their thesis.

§4 - Faculty regulations may stipulate that a student is exempt from doing this doctoral training if s/he obtains an in-depth master's degree (master à finalité approfondie) after having completed a specialized master's degree (master à finalité spécialisée) in the same field of study.

Article 8 : Registration Students must have registered and paid their fees for every year of their Ph.D studies by December 1 at the latest. 6

Students must register with the Academy: at FUSAGx for those students in agronomical sciences and biological engineering, and at ULg for all other students.

4 These articles may be found at the end of the text. 5 The term "distinction" must be understood in a broad sense. It might be a distinction or any other qualification judged to be equivalent. 6 Students must pay the tuition fees for the first year after being admitted; in susequent years, they pay only the administrative costs (the year of their thesis defense included).

3 SECTION IV : THE PROMOTOR

Article 9 The college shall designate the student's thesis promotor upon his/her admission. The promotor shall supervise the student's work and ensure that the thesis committee meets on a regular basis.

Article 10 §1 - The promotor must be a member of the Academy and a permanent member of the academic or scientific personnel. S/he shall hold a Ph.D degree and have written a thesis or passed the higher education “agrégation”.

§2 - Under exceptional circumstances, the college may, particularly in view of the renown of the person in question, exempt a promotor from the obligation of being a member of the academy or holding a Ph.D degree (with thesis).

§3 - If the promotor is not or is no longer a permanent member of the Academy, the college shall appoint a co-promotor who is a permanent member of the Academy and meets one of the criteria for being designated a promotor defined in §1.

SECTION V : THE THESIS COMMITTEE

Article 11 : Designation and composition At the suggestion of the college and with the agreement of the student, the Faculty shall form the student's thesis committee a maximum of one month following his/her admission. The thesis committee is comprised of at least three members, one of whom is the promotor. Members are chosen in view of their competence and may not all belong to the research unit where the student is working towards preparing his/her thesis. They must be holders of a Ph.D degree and have written a thesis or passed the higher education "agrégation". Under exceptional circumstances, particularly in view of the renown of the person in question, the faculty may exempt one of the committee members from the obligation of holding a Ph.D degree (with thesis).

Article 12 : Missions §1 - The thesis committee shall advise the student during the preparation and writing of his/her thesis. The thesis committee meets at least once a year in the presence of the student.

§2 - The committee shall submit a yearly report on the state of advancement of the student's thesis to the competent college by March 31 at the latest. If this report is negative, the committee may recommend to the college, by reasoned opinion, that the student not be authorized to re-register.

§3 - If justified by the state of advancement of the student's thesis, the committee shall submit a report to the college approving the submission of the thesis and suggest that a student's jury be constituted.

§4 - If necessary, the committee shall ensure that privacy conditions stipulated in contracts are respected so as not to hamper the smooth conduct of the research work.

SECTION VI : THE JURY

Article 13 : Designation and composition of the jury §1 - At the college's suggestion, the faculty shall form the student's jury and designatee its president and secretary. The student may also take the initiative of suggesting to the faculty the names of possible jury members.

4 In either case, a report from the thesis committee must be attached to the request. This report shall express the collective opinion of the members comprising the committee. The student may add his/her own comments to the report.

§2 - The jury is comprised of at least five members7, all of whom have a deliberative vote. Unless an exception is made by the faculty, in which case it must be justified, these five members must either belong to the academic personnel of a university, be the holders of a Ph.D degree (with thesis), or have passed the higher education “agrégation”. At least one member of the jury must be external to the Academy 8. The Faculty may, however, decide at its own discretion to require the presence of two or more external members. The promotor and co-promotor are members of the jury but neither can act as president. Nor do they have a deliberative vote. However, the Faculty may grant one of them a deliberative vote in accordance with its own internal regulation.

§3 - The Faculty shall not form a student's jury until the criteria defined in Article 18 have been met.

Article 14 : The moderator Each college may designate a moderator from among its ranks who is a member of the academic personnel of the faculty, and this for a two-year renewable period. The moderator's mission is to ensure that evaluation criteria are uniform. To this end, s/he shall attend the student's jury deliberation wherein s/he has the right to vote.

Article 15 : The private defense If a Faculty regulation requires a private defense, it may not be scheduled unless the candidate is officially registered as a Ph.D student. The defense must take place no earlier than one month after the designation of the jury and the student's communicating his/her thesis project to all members of said jury. The jury shall deliberate at the close of the private defense and decide on the thesis's admissibility :  If the jury deems the thesis admissible, it will, in agreement with the candidate, recommend a date for the public defense to the Dean, one respecting the deadline as defined in Article 16, paragraph 3.  If the jury deems the thesis not admissible, it shall determine a new deadline for a new private defense. The Dean will be invited to participate in this new defense.

Article 16 : The defense §1 - No thesis defense shall be held unless the candidate is officially registered as a Ph.D student, in which case it shall take place by September 14 of the current academic year at the latest.

The Dean of the Faculty shall fix the date in conjunction with the promotor. The thesis defense must take place no earlier than one month following the designation of the jury or, in the case of a private defense, one month thereafter.

§2 - Members of the jury must be present during the deliberation. A member of the jury who, for exceptional reasons which s/he must justify, cannot attend, shall submit his/her recommendation in a written report. Le diplôme de docteur mentionne l’Institution diplômante et son appartenance à l’Académie. Il est accompagné du supplément au diplôme conforme à l’article 82 du décret. A deliberation may not take place if more than half of its voting members are absent.

7 not including the moderator should there be one (see Article 14). 8 An individual is considered to be external to the Academy if s/he, when appointed, is not a member of the academic staff, nor a member of the scientific personnel who is attached to the Academy and may vote in the election of members of the Board of Directors of the University of Liège and the Gembloux Agricultural University.

5 The deliberation is held behind closed doors and is secret.

When deliberating, the jury shall take the following minimum criteria into account:  the quality and originality of the dissertation;  the quality of the oral presentation;  responses to questions during the defense.

The jury shall decide whether it grants the student the title of Doctor or not. No distinction is given when a Ph.D degree is conferred. Ph.D diplomas shall stipulate the name of the degree-granting institution and its belonging to the Academy. It is accompanied by a companion diploma in accordance with Article 82 of the decree.

Article 17 : Defense report When the deliberation is over, the secretary of the jury shall write a defense report signed by each member of the jury present during the defense. A certified copy of this report is attached to the diploma. The Faculty shall archive the original. If the jury decides not to confer a Ph.D degree on a student, a certified copy of the report shall be transmitted to the student a maximum of fourteen days following the defense.

SECTION VII : DURATION OF PH.D STUDIES

Article 18 §1 - No one who has not been registered for a minimum of three years in a doctoral program may be granted a Ph.D., except under exceptional circumstances duly acknowledged and accepted by the college.

§2 - A student shall not be granted a Ph.D degree, except if s/he has been exempted from taking this training.

§3 - Until a training program specifically designed for Ph.D students is created, a student shall not be granted a degree unless s/he already is the holder of a complementary master's degree (unless an exemption has been accorded).

SECTION VIII : APPEALS

Article 19 Until a jury has been designated, a student may refer to the college any dispute s/he may have encountered with his/her thesis committee or his/her promotor. The college shall then hear each party. The college's decisions may be appealed to the doctoral bureau.

SECTION IX : FACULTY REGULATIONS

Article 20 In compliance with the rules defined by the decree and the present regulations, each Faculty shall adopt its own internal doctoral regulations which establish the details of the organization and the smooth Ph.D. operation of the studies for which it is competent. The Faculty may decide to have several regulations, one per study field, per department and/or per section. The regulations must specify the prerequisites for admission, the language in which the thesis is to be written and defended, and specific requirements pertaining to the thesis such as the number of pages, where and when it should be deposited, etc. The regulations may prescribe that the defense be private and set the terms and frequency of jury and thesis committee meetings as well as the number of members composing the jury without violating the present regulations.

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SECTION X : PH.D STUDIES UNDER CO -SUPERVISION

Article 21 Any agreement pertaining to Ph.D studies under co-supervision shall comply with the present regulations and the framework model set out by the Academy.

7 SECTION XI : EUROPEAN DOCTORATE

Article 22 §1 - At the request of the student or his/her promoter, a European doctorate may be conferred on a student, in addition to the degree issued by one of the member institutions of the Academy if the following four conditions are met :  Approval for the submission of the thesis has been granted in view of reports written by at least two from two institutions of higher education in two other European Union member countries;  At least one member of the jury must belong to an institution of higher education from another E.U. member country;  Part of the oral defense will be conducted in an official language of the European Union other than French;  At least one semester of the doctoral program must have been spent in another European Union country.

§2 - The request must be addressed to the doctoral bureau which will determine whether the conditions have been met.

§3 - When a European doctorate degree is conferred upon a student, the latter receives a certificate from the institutions comprising the Academy. This certificate is attached to the degree, though remaining distinct from it.

SECTION XII : GENERAL PROVISIONS CONCERNING THESIS FORMAT

Article 23 §1 - The name of the Academy must appear on the cover page, which must be comply with the format regulations of the Institution and the Faculty as well as with the model defined by the Faculty.

§2 - The second page, a duplicate of the cover page, must be followed directly by a brief summary in the form of an abstract written in French and in English, (and in (an)other language(s) should such be the case), as well as a copyright.

SECTION XIII : TEMPORARY PROVISIONS /CLAUSES AND IMPLEMENTATION

Article 24 §1 - The present regulations apply to all candidates admitted into a Ph.D program beginning with the 2005-2006 academic year.

§2 - Students first registered in a Ph.D program prior to the 2004-2005 academic year may, if they so desire, continue to be subject to the university and faculty regulations then in force so long as their Ph.D degree is conferred during the 2006-2007 academic year at the latest.

§3 - Students who first registered in a Ph.D program in the 2004-2005 academic year may, if they so desire, continue to have the university and faculty regulations then in force applied to them so long as they receive their degree by the 2006-2007 academic year at the latest, subject to meeting the provisions of the decree. The Ph.D degree obtained by these students will be conferred without distinction.

8 Decree defining higher education, promoting its integration into the sphere of higher education in Europe and stipulating how universities are to be refinanced (MB 18-06-2004)

Article 17 § 3 Work done in relation to the preparation of a Ph.D thesis corresponds to a total of at least 180 credits acquired after the completion of at least 300 credits leading to a master's degree. Of these 180 credits, 60 may be acquired in the course of doctoral training.

Article 55 Provided that the general conditions set by the academic authorities are met, a student shall have access to a Ph.D program if s/he is the holder of :

1° an in-depth master's degree in the same field;

2° another master's degree conferred after the completion of at least 120 credits of a mastor's program or the completion of a complementary master's program in accordance with the decision of the academic authories and any complementary terms they may have set and upon the jury's recommendation, which must be justified;

3° an academic degree similar to those mentioned above, delivered by either the Dutch- or German-speaking Community of Belgium or by the Royal Military Schoo,l under the same conditons;

4° a foreign academic degree recognized to be equivalent to one of those mentioned above in accordance with the decree, a European directive or an international agreement, under the same conditions;

5° a foreign qualification or degree recognizing completion of a master's program and assessed as comprising at least 300 credits by the jury, under the same conditions.

If the conditions for admission include taking one or several additional courses corresponding to more than 15 credits, the student's study program shall include an additional year of study. The jury shall determine the precise breakdown of courses of the student over the two years. However, students registered in this additional year are not taken into account as regards financing.

Article 56 Students who have passed their doctoral training shall also have access to study relating to the preparation of a Ph.D thesis on the terms and conditions set by the academic authorities.

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