Information for supervisors

Doctoral Supervisor's Handbook: Navigating Doctoral Success – Staffnet | ETH Zurich

The registration can be done anytime via eApply.

If the doctorate is supervised by an adjunct professor (TitularprofessorIn) or PD (PrivatdozentIn) of ETH Zurich or the ETH Domain, the approval of the department must be obtained prior to registration. In this case, the following documents/information must be submitted to the Doctoral Administration Office D-USYS before official registration:

• How is the doctorate financed?
• Which ETH professor (according to Article 1 of the Download ETH Professors’ Ordinance (PDF, 169 KB)) will act as co-examiner?
• Content of the planned project
• The completed and signed form: Download Supervision of the Doctorate by a Privatdozent or an Adjunct Professor (PDF, 236 KB)

The Doctoral Administration D-USYS takes care of the approval by the department.

According to the Regulations for Doctoral Studies, only professors who are in post at ETH Zurich may supervise theses. If supervisors take on doctoral students less than three years before they retire, the following information must be submitted to the Doctoral Administration D-USYS:

• a successor as thesis supervisor where applicable
• Information on the necessary infrastructure until the thesis is completed 
• Information on financial support for the doctoral students who are affected, should the thesis not yet be completed when the supervisor retires.

The employment of doctoral students must be handled via the Human Resources department.

Download D-USYS guidelines for the employment of doctoral students (PDF, 136 KB)

The assessment of the doctoral thesis considers not only scientific quality, but also linguistic quality. The examiner (the doctoral thesis supervisor) and the co-examiners set out their assessments in written reports. These reports must state whether the thesis should be accepted or rejected and whether corrections are required (“accepted with additional requirements”).

Reviewers must provide their affiliation and contact data in their reports.

The reports must be submitted in electronic form to the D-USYS Doctoral Administration at least five working days before the examination.

The reports are confidential. The persons authorised to view the reports are the members of the examination committee and members of further bodies who are tasked with assessing the doctoral thesis. When the doctoral procedure is complete, doctoral students can view reports pertaining to their own doctoral theses on request.

In the Download directive on payment for taking part in performance assessments at ETH Zurich, it states that the payment for external co-​examiners of theses, including attending the doctoral examination where applicable, should be CHF 400. This excludes co-​examiners who are employed in the ETH Domain or at the University of Zurich. The payment is made by the professorship responsible for supervising the thesis.

The title and content of a thesis cannot be changed after their approval by the Department Conference.