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In the academic world, the doctorate is generally considered to be the highest-ranking diploma. A doctoral student taking up a line of research produces a thesis that will be presented to a jury of PhD holders who are usually accredited research directors. In practice, this ancient model inherited from Medieval times has come to vary considerably in different disciplines. In an already heterogeneous and diverse context, doctoral studies are now seeing further changes, especially in Europe with the process of building up a European sphere of higher education. Two examples of this are the doctorate in creative arts and the doctorate based on arts practice. In this article, we focus in particular on the doctorate in “arts and arts sciences” offered by the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, which was one of the first in France (and worldwide) to receive accreditation in the field of research on contemporary creative arts.