This article essentially fulfills three tasks, that of giving a rapid and systematic overview of doctoral programmes by country in western Europe, that of describing certain initiatives taken by specific countries with the aim of improving third cycle (doctoral) studies, and that of arguing in favour of the establishment of so‐called European inter‐university doctoral programmes. So far as the first task is concerned, the authors note that all but two of the countries concerned have opted for the so‐called PhD type of doctoral programme rather than for long‐cycle programmes. In the case of the second task, they have given particular attention to efforts made in the Federal Republic of Germany to create separate doctoral level institutions. In the case of the third task, the authors have sketched a networking process by which inter‐university and inter‐disciplinary doctoral programmes are being created in certain specific disciplines, particularly scientific ones. The authors consider that such doctorates hold great potential but that their elaboration is being held up by lack of resources and by difficulties in finding, matching, and linking partners.