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A Life of Intellectual Leadership and Influential Scholarship
PhD in Management
Your doctoral journey is the start of your exciting career as an innovative researcher
and professor of management.
We are now recruiting candidates for the mid-August 2024 intake.
Your Passport to a Prestigious Academic Career
Imagine a highly respected, international career – a life of intellectual stimulation, creativity and freedom. It involves working with the leading business thinkers, the best practitioners and the brightest high-potentials. Combining academic research and teaching with real-world business impact, it truly is a dream job that represents the best of both worlds.
Next, imagine that the doctoral degree you need to launch this career is available in a unique two-continent format. Take a group of incredibly intelligent and motivated students from all over the world, bring them to Europe and Asia – then, get the leading experts in their fields to mentor them. Add a full scholarship for tuition fees, a generous living allowance, a formidable placement record… and it really does sound too good to be true.
Now, stop imagining. The INSEAD PhD in Management is a reality. It is proven to be one of the most effective ways to launch a career as a management professor.
Read the Message from the PhD Academic Director
The only two-continent programme
The INSEAD PhD in Management is the only such programme to run across two equal status campuses on two continents in France and Singapore, and the school’s exchange programme with the Wharton School in America adds the option of a third.
The most culturally diverse in the world
Sometimes it feels more like studying on five continents, as the student body is the most international in the world. A typical intake has as many nationalities as it has participants, each bringing a different perspective to the debating table. The faculty is also one of the most international at a top business school.
…and yet the most intimate
INSEAD may be one of the largest and most prestigious postgraduate business schools in the world, but the PhD Programme remains small and intimate. With a maximum of eighteen or so places a year, shared across our two campuses, the student body is close and supportive. Everyone knows everyone else, regardless of their specialist subject. With partners and children encouraged on campus, there is a definite family feel.
Close relationships with world
experts
Perhaps most important of all, the relationships with our faculty are close too. INSEAD professors are the world experts in their fields, yet their strong ethos of support, collaboration and mentorship is distinctive. Whether in the first two years of classes, or the following period of independent research, the insights and guidance of the world’s best teachers and researchers are always available to our PhD students.
A stimulating interdisciplinary environment
INSEAD is also unusual in taking an interdisciplinary approach. Professors and PhD students do not simply work across two continents. They also collaborate across academic areas, offering an even greater breadth of research opportunities and different perspectives.
Full financial support
As well as moral and intellectual support, INSEAD offers generous funding. Almost all PhD students benefit from our scholarships and living allowances, which come with very few strings attached – except our high expectations of our students.
View INSEAD's Full Financial Support to all PhDs.
Outstanding career potential
Given all these INSEAD differences, it is hardly surprising that our graduates go on to obtain academic positions at the best business schools and universities worldwide. Our placement record is truly excellent.
Testimonials
I have over 70 smart people from all over the world and all backgrounds to talk to about my research, my thoughts, and my life. I could not ask for a better support network.
Elena Belavina
Associate Professor of Service Operations, SC Johnson College of Business, Cornell University
INSEAD PhD 2012
Our research should result in a better understanding of how to do business.
Moqi Xu
Senior Lecturer, Queen Mary University of London, London School of Economics and Finance
INSEAD PhD 2011
I heard about how Asia was the world’s rising economic power, but I saw it for myself at the HarbourFront area in Singapore.
Hakan Ener
Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship, IESE Business School, University of Navarra, Spain
INSEAD PhD 2009
I chose INSEAD because it is in the top tier worldwide of institutions for research in strategy and entrepreneurship related areas. It is an environment where I am exposed to new ideas every day.
David Clough
Assistant Professor in Organisational Behaviour and Human Resources Division, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Group, Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, Canada
INSEAD PhD Candidate, Entrepreneurship Area
INSEAD Professors provide excellent training not only in research methods and theory, but also in preparation for my job market search in my final year.
Yann Cornil
Assistant Professor of Marketing, Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, Canada
INSEAD PhD 2015
How long is the PhD Programme?
The INSEAD PhD programme duration is five years of full-time studies. Years 1 and 2 are dedicated exclusively to courses (core and advanced), and years 3, 4 and 5 are devoted exclusively to research, completion of the doctoral dissertation and job market search. Throughout the programme, PhD students will go through teaching preparation, gain and hone soft skills required for teaching, and go through annual performance reviews to move on to the next academic year. Visit https://insead.edu/phd/academics for more details.
Is the PhD programme available in a part-time or online format?
We do not offer the programme in a part-time or online format. INSEAD's PhD in Management is a highly intensive and rigorous five years full-time degree, with all courses compulsory and taking place in either Fontainebleau or Singapore. Therefore, it is neither possible to combine a PhD with your work nor do we offer the courses via distance learning. Note that we provide a full tuition scholarship plus a generous stipend to cover living expenses during the five years of study; thus, working while studying is unnecessary.
