Co-examiners

The supervisor hands in the applications for the members of the doctoral examination committee (co-examiners) to the doctoral administration of the department by using the online form.

One or more co-examiners may be nominated. At least one member of the examination committee must be independent: No co-authorship with candidate and supervisor in the past five years. If the doctoral thesis supervisor is not a professor, at least one co-examiner must be an ETH Zurich professor.

The doctoral administration of the department arranges for the required approval of co-examiners by the Doctoral Commission D-HEST. After approval you will not receive a confirmation but your co-examiners will show up in myStudies.

ETH professors do not need approval from the Doctoral Commission, however, their assignment must be communicated to the department by using the online form.

Second advisors are not automatically listed as co-examiners, they need approval as well.

Deadline

The co-examiners are to be communicated at least 3 months before the doctoral examination.

Note

For doctoral examinations as of 1 January 2024 the following rule applies:

At least one co-examiner must come from outside ETH Zurich and be a proven expert in the area of the doctoral thesis. This can be either

• an active professor from another university, or
• a person who is a proven expert in the area of the doctoral thesis and equivalent to a professor in this. (Example: A research director from a research institution in the ETH domain, a Max-​Planck institute or a Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique).

NOT included are persons from universities of applied sciences or private industry with the corresponding expertise. They may, however, be appointed as additional members of the examination committee.

---> Please indicate in the text field "Rationale" in the online form who of the co-examiners is the external expert. The external expert can also be the independent member.