The « Graduate Program » (or UBGrad) designation is directly inspired from the Anglo-Saxon education systems, where students typically go to graduate school if they wish to further their training after graduating. A UBGrad is therefore a post-graduate program, mainly research-oriented, and that merges the Master’s and PhD degree components. Young researchers have the opportunity to work with established research-teams, and over the course of a longer period of time than usual–5 years total, instead of the traditional 3 in PhD.

In addition to providing Master’s students with the necessary tools for pursuing a potential PhD, graduate programs open career perspectives for diverse growing economic sectors. Excellency in research, education, and innovation at the University of Bordeaux is reinforced by our partnerships with major national research-organizations (such as CNRS, Inserm, Inria, etc.).

UBGrads are also a space for creating a sense of belonging to a community, where the student enters a pathway to excellence from the Master’s level, and where professors, established researchers, and young researchers come together as a group.

This project is a formidable opportunity to complete and amplify the growth of the University of Bordeaux’s doctoral training that had already been initiated with the creation of the Graduate Research School in 2016. The alignment of ‘UBGrads’ with the University’s major research-axes will involve all relevant research-stakeholders in the training of our students, while expanding our international renown.

Roger Marthan — Director of the Graduate Research School

The first wave of UBGrads has been training MSc and PhD students in the fields of Neurosciences (Bordeaux Neurocampus), Optics and Photonics (Light Sciences & Technologies), and Digital Public Health, since 2018. As per September 2021, 4 new graduate programs are now open at the University of Bordeaux : Numerics, EUREkA, Cancer Biology et Cardiac EP.