Tuition & fundings | Toulouse School of Management

Any tuition fees

Our ambition is to attract talented and motivated students. Therefore, admitted students do not have any tuition fees to pay at any point in the programme, as TSM Doctoral Programme offers a full tuition fee waiver for all admitted students, which is applied to each year of the programme.

Students are only required to pay an annual registration fee at the start of each academic year.

DOCTORAL PROGRAMME YEAR	TUITION FEES	ANNUAL REGISTRATION FEE	SCHOLARSHIP AVAILABLE
MSc, Year 1	Waived	€ 250	No
Year 2	Waived	€ 930	Yes
Year 3	Waived	€ 391	Yes
Year 4	Waived	€ 391	Yes
Year 5	Waived	€ 391	Yes

Doctoral contracts

Starting from the second year of the programme, approximately 10 Toulouse Capitole University doctoral contracts are available, which are equivalent to full scholarships. Doctoral contracts are awarded after an internal presentation by the applicant to the Doctoral School Council and are generally awarded to applicants intending to work in higher education and research.

TSM Doctoral Programme is interested in welcoming students of the highest academic caliber. While the first year of the programme is not funded by a doctoral contract, we encourage candidates and admitted students to pursue External Aids/Scholarships (See below).

The doctoral contract, as specified in Décret no 2016-1173 du 31 août 2016 (information in French) is the same for all higher education institutions in France. The three-year contract is signed by the University Toulouse Capitole and the doctoral student. The contract confers the status of a public sector contract employee to the doctoral student.

These doctoral contracts offer financial compensation (1975 € gross salary for new contracts in 2022, 2300 € gross salary for new contracts in 2023 without teaching hours) as well as financial support for conference presentations, research visiting positions and job market events.

Students interested in continuing into the second year of the TSM Doctoral Programme, after successful completion of the MSc, are also able to secure other methods of funding, including French Government scholarships for foreigners, foreign government scholarships, CIFRE agreements.

All students who secure funding to begin the second year of the programme, are also provided with a TSM laptop and there are dedicated office spaces available.

Additional funding for research activities include:

International research visiting grants for periods going from 5 to 30 days, and from 2 months to 12 months,
Registration fees, travel and accommodation funding for academic conferences,
Copy-editing before publication,
International academic job market support.

External aids

ADEME is a government agency dedicated to environmental development and funds doctoral contracts through its research and innovation programme. The application deadline is generally mid-spring, and the application must be submitted with the support of a future supervisor and research laboratory.

Learn more about ADEME

As part of the efforts to serve the disabled, the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research has made available doctoral contracts specifically for disabled persons. Twenty-five contracts are offered annually in France for PhD candidates who are registered as a disabled person.

Learn more about this contract (in French)

For almost 30 years the CIFRE programme (Conventions Industrielles de Formation par la Recherche) provides funding to French companies that hire a PhD student in order to conduct research in collaboration with a university research unit. The work performed within the company will lead to a thesis defense in three years.

CIFRE contracts are entirely funded by the Ministry for Higher Education and Research and managed by ANRT. Details about this type of contract (the procedure to follow, offers, help, etc) are available on the ANRT website.

As part of the efforts to support international cooperation, the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research allots five doctoral contracts annually in partnership with a doctoral school and one of the five Écoles françaises abroad: École française d’Athènes, École française de Rome, Institut français d’Archéologie orientale, École française d’Extrême-Orient, Casa de Velázquez (École des hautes études hispaniques). Successful candidates will have a thesis project related to the research priorities of one of the Écoles.

Learn more about the Écoles and their research programme

Interested candidates should contact the doctoral school early in the admission process in order to prepare their application.

Funding for international candidates

Eiffel Scholarship

The platform CampusBourses run by Campus France provides a directory of different funding possibilities such as grants and scholarships. You can search by nationality, type of studies, or location of studies.

Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie offers grants and scholarships.

Learn more about Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie here (only in French)

The Eiffel Scholarship for excellence scholarships was created by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs to enable French higher education establishments to attract top foreign students to enroll in their Master’s and PhD courses. Candidates for the scholarship are pre-selected by the University in the fall to study in the following year.

Applications for the 2025-2026 Eiffel Scholarship with TSM are open from October 28 to November 18, 2024. No applications will be accepted after November 18th.

The TSM Doctoral Programme is a 5-year Programme, with the first year being an integrated MSc year (Master 2 Master of Science, Research) - the first year is a mandatory part of the Programme.

Students write their PhD thesis in the following 4 years. It is therefore mandatory to choose the 'Master' category of Eiffel Scholarship when applying for the Eiffel Scholarship for a Master of Science, entry level of the TSM Doctoral Programme, which means that the age limit of 27 years old applies, i.e. born after March 31, 1997.

Fundings in other countries

International students are also encouraged to find out whether funding is available in their home country.

Doctoral grants for thesis in International Relations and Strategy by the Ministry of Defense

The French Ministry of Defense has a funding programme for research projects in the field of International Relations and strategy called Pacte Enseignement Supérieur.

The PhD grants for International Relations and strategy are offered through two programmes.

Programme "themes"

The programme targets themes that have been determined by the Ministry to be priorities, all the while offering a flexible framework to allow applicants and doctoral schools to propose topics. This programme will fund 6 grants per year, for 3 years.

Programme "innovation"

This programme aims at encouraging innovative approaches by selecting subjects of any theme with an innovative methodology or multidisciplinary aspects. This programme will fund 3 grants per year, for 3 years.

Learn more on the French Ministry of Defense website

FAQ

A Bachelor’s degree (in the US), the completion of the first year of a Master (in Europe) or an equivalent diploma, representing a four-year course of study (equivalent 240 ECTS) in an accredited college or university, is required for admission to the doctoral programme (Year 1, Master of Science). A completed Master’s degree is not required, although many applicants have a Master’s degree in such fields as management, finance, economics, engineering, psychology, statistics or other related fields. Superior academic performance is expected.

Generally, all interested applicants apply to follow the overall course of the programme (i.e. first year of MSc coursework followed by the internal application to enter into the MPhil course of study and research). Candidates interested in obtaining a PhD through professional experience are encouraged to research the VAE process and then contact doctoralprogramme@tsm-education.fr

A cotutelle, or double degree for the PhD with a foreign university, must be initiated by a TSM Doctoral Programme faculty member (we do not accept requests coming directly from foreign doctoral students). The future supervisors must have pre-existing research ties, such as being co-authors on a paper or collaborating on a research project. Please discuss this project with your supervisor.

No. You should apply first for admission to the Doctoral Programme. Each application will be carefully studied by the professors in the field of specialization. Final decisions are made by the Doctoral Programme Board, so though you could identify potential supervisors doing research in your field of interest, it is not necessary to contact them to agree on supervision prior to application. Identifying the best supervisor is an essential and important milestone for your future PhD thesis: you will do it, with the Doctoral Programme support, during the first 6 months of the MSc degree.