Why a doctorate?
A doctorate: why? what for?
Why do it? Because you have a fundamental question that you want to answer; because you are ambitious; because you want to be part of a dynamic research team; because, basically, why not? The reasons may be many, they may add up, they may change along the way. The cause is less important than the driving force needed to complete your doctorate.
Writing a doctorate is a special moment, a parenthesis dedicated to your research: formulating the questions (the basis of all research: no correct answers if the questions are badly asked); seeking and finding the answers (accepting to be surprised); arguing them, choosing your words, graphs or any other appropriate symbol to convey the results. The doctorate is a parenthesis that reconciles feelings that at first sight seem contradictory: solitude and the need for dialogue, profound curiosity and methodological constraints, creativity and the imperative of academic writing. At no other point in our professional career do we have the opportunity to lay down, over such a long period, the fundamentals that establish and specify academic scientific practice.
Why do it? For some, it is a moment that will propel them onto a university career path. Establishing these intellectual fundamentals is the prerequisite for pursuing further research, and obtaining a doctorate is the required institutional step.
But writing a thesis can lead to many other professional fields. It is an intellectual practice, but also a particular and formative experience. And the components of this experience are exportable: grasping, analysing and solving a complex problem; asking accurate, precise and relevant questions and finding adequate, creative and well-argued answers; working as part of a team; communicating the results of one's reflections, taking account of one's audience. All of these skills are necessary for any decision to be taken and precede any action to be taken. We can therefore say that they are in line with the demands of the professional world. Knowing how to solve complex problems, critical thinking and creativity: these are the top three qualities required in the professional world of 2020, as identified by the World Economic Forum. Doctoral studies open up a wide range of prospects.
Your faculties and thesis supervisors are there to guide you in developing these skills in line with the scientific content of your work. In addition, workshops will be offered to reinforce the qualities and skills implicit in preparing a thesis. Public speaking, writing, time and priority management, voice, body to better negotiate and convince are all actions that will strengthen your intellectual work and propel you towards other professional horizons.
The break referred to above is not a moment of isolation. It is a time for concentration, maturation, propulsion and preparation for a future career, whatever that may be.
Micheline Louis-Courvoisier, Vice-Rector in charge of doctoral studies