Assessment & appeal


Application assessment & appeal procedure


How applications are assessed?

Applicants will be selected according to the following criteria:

  •  Each eligible applications are first pre-evaluated by one member of the Academic and Management Board according to the scoring table and weighted criteria as indicated below:

Criteria used to assess online application

weight

Academic excellence & potential

50%

Recognition of home institution/ recognition of the first degree

10%

Rank/grade/distinction

20%

Adequacy of academic background with PSRS requirements

20%

Track-record

30%

Research projects / Professional experience / Former international experience

20%

Recommendation (academic and professionals)

10%

Motivation (as per cover letter)

20%

English proficiency (as per cover letter + test scores)

Discriminating variable
 (pass/fail)


  • Application files whose  profile does not match the fundamental requirements of the PSRS programme will be discarded without quantitative evaluation.
The first pre-evaluation is scored on a scale of 5 (5=Excellent, 4=Very good, 3=Good, 2=Satisfactory, 1=Sufficient, 0=Insufficient). Special attention is given to make sure that all evaluators share the same view on criteria to be applied and correspondence between subjective quality of each item and the scale used.

  •  All applications getting more than 3/5 after the first assessment are assessed by a second full partner.
  •  All applications  getting on average more than 3.5/5 after the assessment by two full partners are assessed by the 4 academic full partners. 
  • The same full partners will be assigned to applications from specific countries. As a maximum of 3 EMJMD scholarships can be delivered to students from a same nationality, only the 10 best students from each country will be selected to compete at the interview stage.
  •  All applications getting on average more than 3.5/5 after the assessment by four full partners  are interviewed. The applicants’ performance is scored on a scale of 5.

Criteria used to assess interview performance

weight

Ability to listen, understand question and provide relevant and concise answers

10%

Ability to illustrate personality and skills, and notably soft skills, by providing past real life stories to answer competency-based questions

20%

Ability to demonstrate adequacy and consistency between the academic background, objectives of the PSRS programme and professional project

20%

Knowledge of PSRS programme objectives

20%

Degree of engagement for the programme (with respect to other on-going applications) and motivation for the specific training of PSRS

 30%

English proficiency (oral expression and understanding)

Discriminating variable
(pass/fail)

  • The final grade of each application is the average of the application average grade and the interview grade. 
  • Final selection is agreed during a Academic Board meeting by the 4 academics partners full consensus on the basis of averaged selection and interview grades.
  •  An administrative check is performed (diploma authenticity, contact of applicants referees).
Tips for a successful application:

Before applying online,

  • Take time to read about PSRS program
  • Read selection criteria, that will help you focus on what matters
  • The PSRS programme aims at training experts in photonics with a double skill. The first year requires some prerequisites (see What you must know before joining the PSRS EMJMD) in optics and photonics and in programming. Students must demonstrate they have already learnt these prerequisites or, if they have only a part of them and their academic level is excellent, they must demonstrate their commitment to learn them on their own (online courses, books) before starting the programme. Being aware of the programme of the first year and having the right prerequisites is fundamental to succeed. The double skill is taught in second year. All students validating the first year will be well prepared to it whatever the concentration track.

During the interview:

    Be confident
    Make sure you understand the jury questions. Don’t hesitate to ask your jury to rephrase the questions
    The interview should sound more like a discussion than a questioning: follow-up on question, be proactive
    Listen to the jury and be concise. Keep to the point. Be as specific as possible
    Prepare brief real life stories to discuss your accomplishments, strengths and your ability to learn from past experiences
    Tell us your story: why you’re here, where you come from, where you want to go?


Appeal procedure

Unsuccessful applicants to a programme and/or an associated scholarship may appeal following the rejection of their application (including application to EMJMD and Consortium scholarships that are attributed at the time of selection), provided that they have good arguments to oppose.

The procedure to follow for an appeal to the selection decision is set as follows:

1. If the applicant does not agree with the final decision of the Eligibility and Selection Committee, then s/he may appeal this decision to the Quality Assurance Board.

2. In order to be valid, the appeal must be in writing, using the following   letter of settlement template (page 2 of this document) signed and dated, and sent (in .pdf format) by the applicant to the attention of:

Prof. Nathalie Destouches, Head of Academic & Management Board and Academic coordinator, and Nolwenn Luquet, Administrative Coordinator  at master.PSRS [at] univ-st-etienne.fr 

3. The appeal must be submitted within ten (10) days following the publication of selection outcome at the latest.

4. The appeal should set out fully the grounds upon which it disputes the decision of the Selection Committee, together with copies of any relevant supporting documents or justifications upon which it relies. The grounds of the appeal must be based on new elements or facts which were not taken into consideration when the application was originally analyzed. It should be noted that the Quality Assurance Board may reject an appeal which is not submitted within the ten (10) days period or which does not contain the necessary justifications or documentation.

5. The Quality Assurance Board will examine every appeal cases, either physically during a Quality Assurance Board Meeting or virtually any time before the intake starts. The Board may decide or not to ask the Academic and Management Board to reassess and reconsider the application, and to do so before beginning of the intake.

6. The applicant will be informed of the appeal decision by a written instrument at the very least before the said Programme’s intake starts.

Important note: the Quality Assurance Board is primarily responsible for conflict cases settlement. The Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency should not be contacted directly by the student alone, but rather by the Consortium if the conflict, despite the appeal decision, is not resolved.
Share by: