PhD Programmes

Degree requirements

• Respect the study plan and obtain 24 ECTS course credits ;
• Submit and have approved a preliminary thesis dissertation for 30 ECTS credits ;
• Submit and defend a thesis ;
• Do the final deposit with the eventual corrections required by the committee.

The PhD programme requires to be in residence in Geneva during the three first semesters.

About the choice of your supervisor:

PhD students have one semester to choose their supervisor who must be chosen in the faculty of their department (professor, full professor, associate professor, adjunct professor or assistant professor). A co-supervision is possible when the thesis subject matter justifies it.

• Faculty by fields of study

About doctoral courses:

• Each doctoral student must follow the requirements of her/his curriculum (compulsory and electives courses) and obtain 24 ECTS credits before the end of the second semester. A failed course may be repeated until the end of the third semester.
• The final dissertation is evaluated by the dissertation supervisor and a second independent supervisor. Failure to achieve a minimum grade of 4, despite adequate supervision, will result in automatic failure of the whole programme.
• Evaluation: The evaluation procedures are specified in the syllabus of each course. A weekly semester course gives 6 ECTS credits and a note, a one-time workshop or course gives 3 ECTS credits and the mention pass or fail.

Schedule of courses:

• Autumn 2012 (pdf)
• Spring 2012 (pdf)

About the minor

A student has the opportunity to obtain a minor in another discipline to the condition of at least 18 credits from a list of predefined courses and a co-supervisor from the department.

About the preliminary thesis dissertation

Before the end of the third semester, the student submits and defends a dissertation whose length and content (usually a presentation of the issue and methodology, as well as a state of the literature and a work plan) should be seen with the supervisor.

About the thesis

Before the end of the eighth semester, the student submits and defends his doctoral thesis.

IMPORTANT: All inquiries relating to the implementation of Regulation studies should be directed to Director of Studies and must be submitted to the assistant of the concerned programme. The head of the department to which you belong can help you find one-time funding (participation in a conference or research trip) and meet the academic issues (choice of director, curriculum, etc.). Requests must then be submitted to the assistant of the department concerned (link organigramme académique).

publication opportunities

The Publications Department of the Graduate Institute is pleased to inform that all the series of the Institute copublished with PUF, Karthala, Palgrave and Brill give priority consideration to the Institute's recently graduated doctors as their potential authors. These series publish mainly monographs based on the thesis scientific results. Nevertheless, it is also possible to publish directly the thesis in the Graduate Institute eBooks which is an electronic series.

Click here for more information on publications.

WORKSHOPS/Financial Aids

The doctoral school offers students extracurricular workshops and identifies funding opportunities, paper calls and academic jobs offered by other institutions. Click here for more information.

Departments

We invite you to consult regularly the website of your department to keep you informed of conferences and colloquia organized in your discipline.

If you wish to contact the head or the secretariat of a department, click here.