Joint doctoral pathways and shared PhD courses: ENLIGHT expands international doctoral opportunities
Doctoral studies in Europe are becoming more international and accessible through new initiatives developed within the ENLIGHT university alliance.
A significant milestone for the ENLIGHT Doctoral Network was achieved on June 4 2026, when the ENLIGHT universities signed a joint PhD framework agreement to support and streamline cotutelle cooperation. As the first European University alliance to establish such a shared framework, ENLIGHT is paving the way for closer doctoral collaboration across institutions. The agreement will reduce administrative barriers and facilitate jointly supervised doctoral degrees for doctoral researchers throughout the alliance.
At the same time, ENLIGHT universities are piloting a shared doctoral training offer next academic year. In cooperation between five universities, selected doctoral courses are being opened to doctoral researchers and supervisors across the alliance. In the future, this could give doctoral researchers access to a broader range of specialised courses and expertise beyond what is available at their home university.
These developments respond to a broader challenge in doctoral education: how to ensure that doctoral researchers have access to high-quality and diverse training opportunities regardless of the size or profile of their university. Universities increasingly need cooperation models that help provide high-quality doctoral training consistently, every year and across a wide range of fields and interests. ENLIGHT Doctoral Network helps build this capacity by pooling expertise and making specialised courses, supervision and academic communities more widely accessible.
The initiatives and next steps within the alliance were discussed on 4–5 May, when the Core Group of the ENLIGHT Doctoral Network gathered at the University of Tartu for its annual in-person meeting.
The ENLIGHT Doctoral Network was re-established in 2025 to strengthen long-term cooperation in doctoral education across the alliance. The network currently includes two working groups focusing on joint doctoral pathways and shared doctoral training opportunities.
The Joint PhD Working Group, led by Ghent University and involving all ten ENLIGHT universities, focuses on facilitating cotutelle cooperation and developing common procedures for joint doctoral pathways. Following the framework agreement, the group will develop a common cotutelle agreement template to further simplify collaboration between universities.
The PhD Training Working Group, jointly led by the University of Tartu and the University of Bern, focuses on creating a shared doctoral training offer across ENLIGHT. During the pilot phase, participating universities are opening selected existing courses to each other’s doctoral researchers and supervisors.
“The members of the Doctoral Network have shown remarkable commitment, and within just one year, we have taken collaboration in doctoral education across ENLIGHT to a new level. At the same time, we see significant potential to involve doctoral researchers more actively in shaping our activities and to develop a complementary, well-integrated offer that supports both doctoral researchers and supervisors across the alliance,” said Monika Tasa (University of Tartu) and Lenka Fehrenbach (University of Bern), co-leads of the ENLIGHT Doctoral Network.
In the coming years, the ENLIGHT Doctoral Network also plans to expand activities related to doctoral researchers’ career support, communication and visibility. Through closer cooperation, ENLIGHT universities aim to make doctoral studies more internationally connected, complementary and attractive for doctoral researchers across Europe.