Allowing Oxbridge alumni to upgrade their bachelor¡¯s degrees to a master¡¯s for ?10 has long enraged graduates of other universities, particularly those with a ¡°real¡± MA.

But what if graduates of these elite institutions could also lay claim to a PhD? This scenario might sound fanciful but it is in essence, some argue, what is about to happen in France.

From September, new rules will create a radical new way for the graduates of France¡¯s grandes ¨¦coles to gain the magic letters ¡°PhD¡± after their name ¨C one that skips the need for a viva or years of doctoral research.

Under the plans, announced in May, those who have passed through grandes ¨¦coles?¨C highly selective institutions attended by only about 5 per cent of students ¨C will be able to seek a PhD if, alongside their course, they attend training classes as part of a ¡°professional project¡± related to the workplace.

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¡°It¡¯s quite an easy process compared to a doctorate, which requires three to five years of intense study on a specific theme,¡± said Fran?ois Gar?on, professor of history at ±Ê²¹²Ô³Ù³ó¨¦´Ç²Ô-Sorbonne University ¨C Paris 1.

¡°You also must argue your research findings before an academic panel, which is something this new pseudo-doctorate does not require,¡± Professor Gar?on added.

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Instead, those seeking a PhD will need only to be ¡°patronised¡± by a supervisor and to take various classes over the course of a three-year period to gain a doctorate, he explained.

¡°You don¡¯t need to write a thesis, but will need to take three to five courses and take some exams to get a PhD,¡± he said.

So why is France now set on a course that, Professor Gar?on believes, will devalue the currency of its PhDs?

The changes are motivated by a desire to increase the international recognition of a grande ¨¦cole education, which is viewed in France as vastly superior to that offered in the country¡¯s largely unselective universities, he explained.

¡°People in France ¨C particularly the elite ¨C think a PhD is worth less than graduating from a grande ¨¦cole engineering school, which is frankly ridiculous,¡± he said.

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Many within the elite even believe that attending an obscure grande ¨¦cole in Perpignan is better than having a PhD from an internationally renowned university such as the Sorbonne, Professor Gar?on added.

¡°But this type of degree does not mean anything abroad, so this is why they are¡­a kind of fraudulent PhD,¡± he said.?¡°The elite have now invented a new type of doctorate to help protect the grande ¨¦cole pseudo-elite, but this new PhD is really false money.¡±

Sophia Stavrou, an associate researcher at Aix-Marseille University, said that the doctoral reforms represent a ¡°broader change in the philosophy of doctoral programmes and ÖйúAƬ in general¡±, in which original intellectual thought is relatively sidelined by the needs of the labour market.

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¡°Professionalisation becomes the main objective of the doctoral programme through the introduction of professionalising training modules [and] by rendering necessary the conception of a personal ¡®professional project¡¯ for each PhD student,¡± said Dr Stavrou, who is also a lecturer in the University of Cyprus¡¯ department of social and political sciences.

¡°One can also note a certain weakening of the scientific relevance of the doctoral work as [that of] an academic contributing to scientific knowledge,¡± she added, saying that the doctorate is now described in the ministerial decree as merely a ¡°work of ¡®scientific, economic, social or cultural interest¡¯¡±.

While the reforms may simply formalise some provisions that are already available to doctoral students, they have been ¡°mainly interpreted as an attack on the university [as an] institution¡±, Dr Stavrou added.

The biggest fear is the ¡°loss of the universities¡¯ privilege, as the academic institution par excellence, to confer doctoral diplomas [in favour of] the grandes ¨¦coles, whose own diplomas are more valued within the French two-speed ÖйúAƬ system¡±, she said.

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jack.grove@tesglobal.com