eth zurich phd admission requirements

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Department of Computer Science

Doctoral studies.

Computer science at ETH Zurich stands for innovative research in an exciting, fast-moving, and diverse field. Located in one of Europe's most attractive cities, ETH offers two doctorate programs geared towards quality education and numerous career opportunities.

Doctoral Study Programme

To students holding a Master's degree with a strong background in computer science or a closely related field, the Doctoral Study Program offers the opportunity to directly join one of our internationally renowned research groups. More information

Direct Doctorate in Computer Science

Students with a Bachelor’s degree in computer science or a closely related field with a strong interest in research have the chance to directly enroll as a doctoral student through the Direct Doctorate in Computer Science. The program combines coursework with original research and allows students to explore a broad range of areas in computer science before starting their doctoral dissertation. More information

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Department of Earth Sciences

General admission information for the doctorate at d-erdw.

The admission procedure for a doctorate at ETH Zurich consists of two stages: the provisional and definite admission . To initiate the admission procedure, the candidate must have obtained the written agreement of a faculty member to supervise the thesis.

Provisional admission

• The doctoral candidate must register at the central doctoral administration via eApply .
• Under certain circumstances, in agreement with the doctoral committee of D-ERDW, admission may require extended doctoral studies (e.g. if there are professional gaps in the research area that need to be filled); additional requirements must be fulfilled before the end of the doctorate/doctoral examination.
• The central doctoral administration issues the confirmation of provisional admission.
• If employed at ETH, employment contracts can only be issued after provisional admission .
• As a rule, doctoral students are employed as research assistants. The drawing up of an employment contract is an additional process, which is organised by the supervisor's institute.
• Contract workflow varies greatly depending on the country of origin of the doctoral candidate. Allow enough time if a visa is required.

Definite admission

The definite admission is granted when the aptitude colloquium has been passed within the first year of the doctoral studies (9-12 months after start of the doctorate).

Questions and contact

Quick access.

• chevron_right Open positions on the ETH job portal
• chevron_right Registration and admission for an ETH doctorate
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Department of Health Sciences and Technology

Qualifying examinations.

Only applicable to doctoral students with additional admission requirements who enrolled before 1 January 2022  

Request for Deadline Extension

The admission requirements must be met within one year after the date of the admission letter. This deadline can also be found at www.mystudies.ethz.ch .

After approval of the deadline extension by the department, Academic Services will confirm the new deadline to the candidate.  

Requests for Qualifying Examination Changes

The Doctoral Commission of the department decides on the change of qualifying examinations in consultation with the supervisor of the thesis.

When proposing a change of qualifying examinations, the supervisor provides the Doctoral Administration of the department with the following details:

• Course (title and number)
• Name of the examiner/s
• Type and duration of the examination

Type and duration of a qualifying examination may differ from the information published in the course catalogue. In such cases, the supervisor of the thesis has to agree on a special examination with the examiner.

The duration of oral examinations must be at least 30 minutes, and the supervisor of the thesis may not be an examiner.

If a supervisor proposes qualifying examinations which are not listed in the course catalogue, a bibliography has to be provided.

After approval of the changed qualifying examinations by the department, the Prorector for the Doctorate takes a final decision. If he agrees, the changed examination/s are decreed and the candidate is informed about the further steps.

The approval process may take 3-5 weeks.

• The registration for qualifying examinations is handled differently from registrations for regular examinations. Relevant information about the registration procedure is given after the proposed examinations have been confirmed.
• Examinations which have already been passed cannot be accepted as qualifying examinations in retrospect.

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Department of Management, Technology, and Economics

Application and admission.

On this page you will find general information about how to apply for a doctorate at D-MTEC.

Who can apply?  

How do i apply  .

In order to become a doctoral candidate at D-MTEC, you must find a professor willing to supervise your thesis. Applications are to be made directly to this professor. The doctorate usually involves employment at the chair of your supervising professor.

• chevron_right Explore current openings at D-MTEC
• chevron_right Overview of the research groups at D-MTEC
• chevron_right Information on employment at ETH Zurich

How do I register for a doctorate?  

Signing an employment contract does not automatically mean that you are registered as a doctoral candidate. As a doctoral candidate you have to register with the ETH Doctoral Administration.

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Department of Mathematics

How to apply for a doctorate.

The external page Zurich Graduate School in Mathematics (ZGSM) call_made offers international applicants the possibility of doing a doctorate at ETH Zurich or the University of Zurich. If you want to apply, please use the external page ZGSM's online application form call_made .

Please be aware that doctorates are in general associated with an offer of employment.

Before registration you must have applied and been accepted by an examiner . Please keep in mind that the hiring process may take some time (2-4 weeks), especially if a visa needs to be obtained (6-8 weeks).

Who can act as doctoral thesis supervisor/examiner?

A doctoral thesis can be supervised by a professor as indicated under Art. 1 of the external page Ordinance on Professorships ETH (only availabe in German) call_made . Privatdozenten resp. Privatdozentinnen working full-​time at ETH Zurich can also act as doctoral thesis supervisors. However, this requires approval from the Department. The required approval form Download Supervision of the Doctorate by a Privatdozent (PDF, 236 KB) vertical_align_bottom must be submitted along with the application for your doctorate. Please note in this context that, where a thesis is supervised by a Privatdozentin resp. a Privatdozent, at least one co-​examiner must be a professor as indicated under Art. 1 of the external Ordinance on Professorships ETH ( link see above ). Professors can act as examiners in doctoral examinations for up to one year after their retirement. The relevant department (that provides the infrastructure and the funding) is responsible for approving them as examiners after the end of their office. It should be noted that during the first year after retirement or resignation, at least one professor as indicated under Art. 1 of the Ordinance on Professorships ETH (link see above) must be called in as co-​examiner. If the doctoral examination has not been taken after the expiry of this year, retired professors must give up the role of doctoral thesis supervisor and a new supervisor must be decided upon.

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Department of Architecture

Doctoral studies.

A doctorate can be obtained within a maximum of six years at various institutes of the Department of Architecture (D-ARCH). It is possible to begin doctorate studies at any time in the academic year. The doctoral programme concludes with the title Dr. sc ETH Zurich.

Prerequisites for application

The admission requirements for a doctorate at our faculty are a Master’s degree from a recognized university as well as an excellent academic performance.

Further, the candidate himself / herself has to look for a Professor who is willing to act as a supervisor.

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Department of Physics

Governing rules.

• chevron_right Doctoral plan
• chevron_right Second advisor
• chevron_right Aptitude colloquium
• chevron_right Confidential discussion
• chevron_right Credit points

Doctoral students matriculated before 1.1.2022, may consult Download this presentation (PDF, 1.2 MB) vertical_align_bottom to learn about the minor adjustments to the previous regulations.

As a doctoral student of D-PHYS you will have to meet certain requirements to be admitted to the doctoral examination. You find the relevant rules on this website and on the student portal .

Doctoral plan

Relevant for all doctoral students enrolled after 1.1.2022 Provisionally accepted candidates must draw up a doctoral plan within the first year of their doctorate. It forms the basis for the aptitude colloquium and needs to be handed in latest two weeks before.

Please note that the doctoral plan has not the character of a legally binding agreement, but is rather a declaration of intent between you and your supervisor. It should be 2-5 pages in length and the introduction should be written so that the general idea is understandable to a physicist outside of your field.

Use the template provided in the section Forms and documents .

Please refer to Art. 11 of the DO.

Second advisor

Relevant for all doctoral students having their doctoral examination after 30.6.2022 Doctoral students at ETH are supervised by at least two persons. The supervisor of the doctoral thesis and a second advisor. Please refer to Art. 28 of the DO.

Transitional provisions regarding designation of a second advisor (see Art. 63 of the DO):

• If admission is definite by 1.1.2022 (research plan provided) a second advisor has to be appointed by 30.6.2022 .
• If admission is provisional by 1.1.2022 (research plan not yet provided) a second advisor must be appointed by 31.12.2022 .

Aptitude colloquium

Relevant for all doctoral students enrolled after 1.1.2022 Within 12 months after provisional admission, all doctoral students have to defend their doctoral plan in an aptitude colloquium. Passing the aptitude colloquium is a condition for definitive admission to the doctorate.

Please refer to Art. 12 – 17 of the DO.

Doctoral candidates who would like to reserve a date for the aptitude colloquium can find an overview of the available dates here . 

Confidential discussion

After 1.5 to 2 years, you will be invited to a confidential discussion about the doctorate progress. The content of the discussion is confidential and can only be documented or passed on with the consent of the respective doctoral student.

If needed, you may initate additional, confidential conversations. The person responsible until Juli 2025 is Prof. Christian Degen.

Confirmation of credit points

For further information on credit points based on date of enrolment see textbox below. A confirmation that you have obtained sufficient credit points during your doctoral studies, is mandatory when registering for the doctoral examination.

We strongly recommend clearing this step as soon as you have obtained the necessary 12 credit points, but at the latest 10 weeks before your doctoral examination.

Asking for confirmation of these credit points close to the defense date is at your own risk.

Further information on credit points

Enrolment before 1.1.2022.

You will have to acquire 12 credit points during your doctoral studies. You may - but do not have to - take the exam. If you are taking the exam the amount of ECTS is counted as doctoral credit points.

If you do not take the exam, you are expected to regularly visit the courses and exercises. This regular attendance must be confirmed by the lecturer. In this case the amount of the weekly hours are counted as doctoral credit points (2V + 1U = 3 credit points). These doctoral credit points may not exceed the amount of ECTS allocated to a course unit.

As a rule, a one-week summer / winter school counts for 1 credit point and a one-week conference with poster or talk counts for 2 credit points. Use the Download course confirmation sheet (PDF, 25 KB) vertical_align_bottom to get these confirmed.

For further information please refer to the Detailed Stipulations of D-PHYS, appendix 1.

Enrolment after 1.1.2022

During your regular doctoral studies you will have to acquire a total of 12 ECTS credit points. Therefore, passing the performance assessment that is part of the course, is a prerequisite for the acquisition of credit points. (The attestation is not sufficient.)

You will have to acquire at least 2 credit points in each of these categories:

• Deepening and broadening of knowledge within and outside the research area of the doctoral thesis.
• Acquisition of interdisciplinary competences / soft skills.
• Integration into the scientific community.

You can find a corresponding, but non-exhaustive selection in the course catalogue. Acquired ECTS credit points show in your myStudies. At the end of your doctoral studies a transcript of records will be issued.

Please refer to this Download guideline (PDF, 444 KB) vertical_align_bottom on how to obtain credit points for doctoral studies.

For further information please refer to Art. 34-38 of the DO, Art. 10 of the Rector's Implementation and the Detailed Stipulations of D-PHYS.

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Department of Materials

The Department of Materials offers doctoral students excellent research opportunities and specialized education in a variety of research areas.

Doctoral students contribute to ETH Zurich’s research by carrying out an independent and original scientific research project under the supervision of a professor. During their doctoral studies they acquire additional knowledge and competences both in the research area of the doctoral thesis and beyond the original discipline. In addition, doctoral students contribute to the teaching of the department by supervising projects and lab courses or by assisting in lectures.

Doctoral students at the Department of Materials are typically associated with the MaP Doctoral School  and one of its thematic tracks . If you are interested in joining the Department of Materials for your doctorate, we advise you to have a look at the overview of research groups and contact the professors to inquire about available open positions. Direct recruitment through the MaP Doctoral School will be possible regularly. Doctoral students who have been admitted to the Department of Materials can find an overview of the processes associated with the department’s doctoral studies in the following study guide:   Download Study Guide for the Doctorate at D-MATL (PDF, 430 KB) vertical_align_bottom

For more information about registration and admission, please consult the website of ETH Zurich's doctoral administration office .

• Phone phone +41 44 632 25 20

ETH Zurich Department of Materials Leopold-Ruzicka-Weg 4 HCP F 33.1 8093 Zurich Schweiz

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Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences

Doctoral studies.

The doctoral programmes of the D-CHAB attract around 500 highly qualified doctoral students from all over the world that are doing research in over 50 groups that cover a wide range of research areas in chemistry, pharmaceutical and applied sciences. About 50% of all doctoral chemistry students in Switzerland are educated at the D-CHAB.