In order to develop the international dimension of doctoral education, to encourage the mobility of doctoral candidates and to promote scientific cooperation between the AMU's research units or teams and their international partners, an agreement may be established between the two partner institutions (AMU and the international partner) for the organisation of an international doctoral thesis joint supervision (cotutelle).

In this case, the contracting institutions are bound by a reciprocity rule.

The procedure for setting up the international cotutelle thesis is described on the website of the AMU's International Relations Directorate (DRI) at the following web address:

http://dri.univ-amu.fr/fr/enseignants-chercheurs-doctorants/these-cotutelle.

Any application for enrolment of a cotutelle doctoral candidate must first be approved by his/her affiliated doctoral school (DS) before it is submitted to the DRI for instruction and subsequently to the Research Commission for validation. The cotutelle application file submitted to the DS for opinion must include the following items: the doctoral candidate's file, the motivation and relevance of the cotutelle project with the international partner, the CV of the co-supervisor partner as well as a description of the research activities of his/her research unit or team. The application for the agreement must be sent to the DRI for instruction before April 15 of the first academic year of thesis enrolment. However, exceptionally, a duly justified request made during the second year may be considered.

The doctoral candidate enrolls in both partner institutions. He/she carries out his/her research work under the responsibility of a thesis director affiliated to the doctoral candidate's DS who undertakes to fully carry out his/her supervisory responsibilities in collaboration with a thesis supervisor in the partner institution. The thesis results in a unique defense. After defending the thesis, the doctoral candidate is awarded a doctorate degree by each of the two partner universities.

An international cotutelle thesis may, in some cases, be difficult or even impossible to organize with some international partners. In this case it is recommended to organize an international thesis co-supervision, which is a lighter scheme, which does not require a double thesis enrolment and does not lead to a co-degree. In this case, the partners will have to establish an international thesis co-supervision agreement.