Each year, ENSTA welcomes several hundred doctoral students to its two campuses, enabling them to pursue their research at the highest scientific level in a variety of exciting and innovative fields of innovation.

Why pursue a thesis at ENSTA?

Internationally recognized as a mark of excellence and a sign of a very high level of expertise, a Ph.D. opens the door to highly skilled positions in both the public and private sectors. In addition to providing access to the academic world, it opens up major long-term career opportunities based on the specific skills acquired during the doctoral program, which are widely recognized in the socio-economic sphere for highly skilled positions.

Within the ENSTA laboratories, doctoral students work in a cutting-edge research and innovation ecosystem. With close ties to industry (many CIFRE theses), they become part of a large, internationally recognized research community.

Key figures

300
PhD students
13
academic laboratories
27
industrial chairs and joint laboratories
Over 200
lecturers and research professors

What is a doctoral dissertation?

Available to those who have earned an MSc in Engineering, a master’s degree, or an equivalent qualification, the doctorate is a national degree awarded by an accredited institution of higher education in recognition of the research conducted by a doctoral student as part of a dissertation.

This research is generally conducted in a research laboratory at the institution (or partially in a company under CIFRE agreements), is supervised by one or more thesis advisors, and typically lasts three years. Doctoral students enroll in doctoral schools that support them throughout their research-based training. The doctorate is an internationally recognized degree.

Doctoral Schools

The doctoral schools affiliated with ENSTA are:

In the field of Humanities and Social Sciences, ENSTA doctoral students, in association with the FoAP laboratory, are affiliated with the Abbé Grégoire Doctoral School at CNAM Paris.

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A sports challenge in wingfoiling to support medical research

Max Duez is a master’s student at ENSTA and the University of Brest (UBO). This summer, he decided to take on a sporting challenge with his friend Pol: to cover 500 kilometers by wingfoil along the coast of Brittany. It’s a human and charitable adventure...

Institute | Training
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About 40 IETA military students marched on July 14, 2026, on the Champs-Élysées on behalf of ENSTA and the DGA. For the past three weeks, they had been preparing together for this major event for the French armed forces, whose theme was “Europe’s...

Research
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