Doctoral Examination

Scheduling the examination

Check the availabilities of D-HEST professors to chair your examination in the shared Outlook calendar "Doctoral Examination D-HEST" and choose a time slot. Agree on the same date and time with your supervisor and co-examiners and inform the doctoral administration of the department, Mrs. Farida D'Addario: . If the professors' time slots in the calendar do not suit your planning, please ask a professor bilaterally to chair your examination. Every professor of D-HEST can act as chairperson.

The doctoral administration of the department will then arrange your examination, i.e. reserve a room and set up a videoconference, if needed. Please provide us with the following information on the format of your examination:

• on site (all participants are physically present), hybrid (one or more members of your committee take part online) or remote (everybody is online)
• Do you prefer a room at ETH Zentrum, ETH Hönggerberg or elsewhere?
• How many guests do you expect on site approximately?
• Who is the chair of your examination?

Please note that MMS (Multimedia Services) only provides technical support if a member of your examination committee (or you) will attend online. If only guests are attending online, you will have to set up a videoconference yourself.

Deadlines:

• Communicate your co-examiners at least 3 months before the examination. Information about approval of co-examiners
• Inform the doctoral administration of the department about the planned examination at least 30 days before the examination by email to .
  
• Register for the examination with Academic Services at least 15 working days before the examination. Details on the registration procedure available on the student portal.
• Submit your thesis at least 15 working days to your examination committee (inclusive chair).
  
• Submission of the thesis evaluation reports by the examination committee members at least 5 working days before the examination. DownloadInformation for the committee members (PDF, 111 KB)vertical_align_bottom.

Please note that late registration/information/report submission may lead to re-scheduling of the doctoral examination.

Examination registration

Register for the examination with Academic Services at least 15 working days before your examination date. Early registration (up to 3 months before the examination) is possible.

You will need the following documents:

• The Downloadregistration form (PDF, 886 KB)vertical_align_bottom, signed by you and your supervisor. On the form, the department must confirm by signature that you have obtained the required credit points. The responsible persons are:
  
  • Food Science: Dr. Jeannette Nuessli Guth, Study Programme Coordinator
    
  • Health Sciences and Technology: Dr. Roland Müller, Study Programme Coordinator
    
• The title page of your doctoral thesis. Leave the dissertation number field empty, the number of the thesis will be assigned upon registration. No print version of your thesis has to be provided.
  

After registration, Academic Services will send you a registration confirmation and inform the doctoral administration of your department.

Invitation and Examination

• After you have registered, the doctoral administration of the department will issue and distribute the invitation to your examination. They will also ask the supervisor and the co-examiner(s) for reports on your thesis. The signed reports (hardcopy or PDF) must be provided at least 5 working days before the examination. 
• As a rule, doctoral examinations at D-HEST are open to the public. They are published in the event calendars of the department and ETH Zurich. On request of the supervisor, a doctoral examination can also be non-public.
• A doctoral examination can take place physically or virtually. A combination of these two forms is also possible (hybrid format). The department can make restrictions to the formats offered, e.g. during a pandemic. In case of a virtual doctoral examination or a hybrid examination where the physical presence of the candidate, committee member(s) and/or chairperson is not possible, the examination takes place by video conferencing, hosted by ETH Multimedia Services (MMS). If a virtual or hybrid examination cannot be carried out properly due to severe technical problems, the chairperson may decide to discontinue the examination.