Masters: evaluation criteria

Stakes and objectives

The “bachelor – master – doctorate” programme range must be clear and rooted in the main fields of competence of institutions. For the master’s and the doctorate, it must rely on renowned research teams.

The range must be constructed to offer a real variety of learning pathways tailored to the diversity of students, in initial training and continuing education, giving them the opportunity to specialise in a particular field over time or to convert.

Lastly, it must be checked that the range of programmes fits logically into the institution’s scientific policy and is positioned in the local and regional context.

Evaluation of master’s degrees

For the consistency of the programme range, links between bachelor’s and master’s degrees on the one hand and between master’s degrees and doctoral schools on the other should be specified. Compatibility between the 2^nd year of a master’s and the requirements of doctoral schools must be highlighted.

In each master’s speciality, the various subspeciality pathways must be described with sufficient accuracy (content hourly volumes, procedure for awarding credits, placements, etc.). Consistency between the bachelor’s-master’s flows must be established, as the number of subspecialities in a given master’s speciality depends on it.

Four criteria are applied:

• Extent to which the master’s is associated with research: special attention is paid to the renowned research teams on which the master’s degrees call, the potential which can be called on in terms of professors and researchers, with account taken of accreditations to supervise research, research and doctoral supervision grants, etc.
• Organisation of the teaching programmes: this must particularly give students the opportunity to specialise in a particular field over time, resulting either in integration into the job market or admission into doctoral training.
• Extent to which the master's helps students to prepare for the job market: link between degrees and professions, partnerships with businesses (on designing the degree, participating in teaching, offering placements), follow-up of vocational integration – a report of the fate of students since the master’s was created must be supplied and analysed.
• International partnership arrangements: type and relevance of international partnerships set up, number of students concerned