The FEDE Doctoral School

FEDE - Federation for EDucation in Europe > The FEDE Doctoral School

The FEDE Doctoral School

Each FEDE doctoral student is affiliated with the FEDE Doctoral School, which is composed of three research and publication divisions:

– the Trends Division (luxury, design, culture and tourism), headed by Professor Jean-Louis Bischoff;

– the Innovation Division (sustainable health, digital technology, technology), headed by Jean-Noël Vallée;

– the Governance Division (management, finance, banking, marketing and human resources), headed by Alain Tobelem.

The Director of the FEDE Doctoral School is Professor Jean-Louis Bischoff, who also heads the Trends Division. He is assisted by two fellow Division Directors and eight further world-renowned experts with extensive academic and professional networks.

Find out more about the FEDE DBA here

Meet the FEDE Doctoral School’s Division Directors …

Jean-Louis Bischoff
Research Director

Jean-Louis Bischoff has a PhD in philosophy (École Pratique des Hautes Études) and is a French state-accredited research director (Université d’Artois).

A graduate of the Institut de Formation pour l’Etude et l’enseignement des Religions (IFER), he is affiliated with the Texts and Cultures Lab (Youth and Children’s Literature Team/Centre Robinson) at the Université d’Artois.

An expert on trends, Jean-Louis Bischoff has a long career in the music, communications and entertainment industries. He has been involved in a range of projects from musicals (Élysée Montmartre), cinematographic productions (Max Linder), and communications initiatives (Carte Jeunes, Ministry for Youth and Sport, Lille City Administration, Française des Jeux).

Professor Bischoff teaches philosophy at French universities and lectures on creativity and contemporary trends at the Institut Supérieur de Pédagogie (ISP), Paris, as well as at numerous art and luxury fashion institutions. His research focuses on the philosophy of religion, religion and the sacred in contemporary pop culture, the perception of trends, the philosophy of education, and aesthetics.

Jean-Louis Bischoff is the FEDE’s Director of Research. He is also Director of the FEDE Doctoral School and Director of the Doctoral School’s Trends Division.

Alain Tobelem
Research Director

Alain Tobelem has a PhD in development economics (Sorbonne, Paris) and is a French State-accredited research director for research projects in management (Université de Nice). He is also a graduate of Sciences Po, the Institut de Hautes Etudes pour Amérique Latine, CELSA and the Sorbonne (Hispanic and Lusitanian languages and civilisations).

Fluent in four languages (French, English, Spanish and Portuguese), Alain Tobelem has worked in over 75 countries for a number of international organisations:

the Centre International du Développement (CID) in Paris, where he worked alongside Josué de Castro (author of Geopolitics of Hunger);
UNESCO, as an expert on functional adult education and later on the economics and financing of education;
the World Bank, as an education financing expert and as lead expert on institutional development;
at the International Labour Office (ILO) as Project Manager for the Ministry of Labour of Brazil, where he worked on a national labour training system.

Alain Tobelem teaches management, project management and economic intelligence at the CERAM (Sophia Antipolis), the Ecole Nationale d’Administration du Portugal, the Institut International d’Administration Publique (IIAP, ENA France programme), and at the ENA campuses in Tunisia and Rabat. He also teaches research methodology in international universities in Nice, Shanghai and Hanoi.

Alain Tobelem is Director of the Governance Division of the FEDE Doctoral School.

Jean-Noël Vallée
Research Director

Jean-Noël Vallée is a medical doctor with a PhD in medicine (Université Paris-5) and a French state-accredited research director (neurosciences). He also has a PhD in physical sciences (Université Paris-13), a master’s-level degree from the Faculty of Letters of Lyon-3 University, a bachelor’s-level degree from the Institut d’Administration des Entreprises (Lyon-3 University), an engineering degree from INSA Lyon, and the international ‘4D Road Map’ qualification (4D work on the cellular structure of the human brain).

A qualified practitioner of radiology and medical imagery as well as radiosurgery and stereotactic radiotherapy, Jean-Noël Vallée is a specialist in diagnostic and surgical neuroradiology. He conducts endovascular operations to treat brain aneurysms and spine and vascular disorders. He is a former registrar and assistant consultant for the Paris hospital network.

Jean-Noël Vallée is Director of the Innovation Division of the FEDE Doctoral School

What is a FEDE DBA?

The DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) is a three-year (on average) doctoral programme aimed at managers, consultants, experienced teachers and decision-makers who wish to draw on their career experience to complete a research project.

The programme is designed to provide such professionals with an opportunity for reflection, analysis and academic stocktaking. Our students boost their managerial efficacy, limit their decision-making risks and learn to devise innovative, high-impact and responsible strategies.

The DBA imbues learners with a new rigour, forcing them to reflect differently and to better structure their managerial models. Action on the basis of evidence rather than trends requires detachment and poise. It leads to the acquisition of a new authority amongst one’s peers and makes our DBA graduates truly resourceful colleagues, capable of taking on and solving a business’s problems.

Given the busy schedules of our students, who are typically working professionals, the DBA is a part-time research/action programme, fully compatible with learners’ business activity.

Why the FEDE DBA?

The FEDE DBA allows learners to draw fully on their professional experience. It opens up new career prospects, endows learners with expert status and ensures professional recognition by peers.

FEDE DBAs are an excellent addition to the CVs of senior staff, both nationally and internationally. They provide experienced professionals (whether they already hold a master’s degree or not) to reflect on their managerial practice, certify their professional skills, legitimise their authority and advance professionally.Contemporary employers attach great value to DBAs. Indeed, in the light of ever greater competition, the complexities of the modern world, increasingly advanced technology and the fast, global movement of information, businesses require staff with interdisciplinary skills, an international mindset, the ability to design innovative models and the flexibility to adapt creatively to workplace changes.

For these reasons, the majority of DBA graduates are recruited by major international consulting, finance and industrial corporations. Several large groups already include DBA degrees in their career management policy.

FEDE DBAs are available in a large range of research areas covering management and business strategy; tourism and hospitality; luxury, creation, fashion and culture; finance, banking and insurance; and IT and technology.

A tailor-made educational programme

Two seminars that (re)submerge students in collective brainstorming

Taught in Paris at the weekend and led by a state-accredited university professor and member of the FEDE Doctoral School, the two seminars are entitled:

Epistemology: Research Methodology (aim: learn to define an area of research, collect and process information, use the information to generate ideas, and establish a research question);
Trends: (aim: understand social changes in order to develop projects and strategies).

Two personalised seminars focusing on the student’s research area

These seminars are taught by business professionals who are experts in their field. Doctoral students learn to use knowledge (even highly theoretical knowledge) to inform their approach to concrete professional issues.

Students at the FEDE Doctoral School have access to the FEDE’s network of renowned international specialists, business professionals, researchers and PhDs, all of whom are able to provide expert guidance.

Participation in external events

Doctoral students are regularly invited to national and international events in the following fields:

management (marketing, human resources, finance);
the humanities (philosophy, sociology, psychology);
arts and culture (music, performance, heritage, contemporary art).

The FEDE Doctoral School