PhD program

The Doctoral agreement (Doktoratsvereinbarung) en (PDF, 292KB) puts rights and duties of the PhD candidate and the supervisor(s) on record, and aims to set an optimal framework for the PhD candidate. The doctoral agreement can be modified and should be reviewed regularly. It must be completed within the first month of the PhD project and submitted to the studies directorate.

As a general rule, two or more persons are needed to supervise a PhD thesis. They form the supervising committee. One committee member must be independent from the principal supervisor to ensure a four-eyes principle of supervision. Besides the principal supervisor, the committee members can be co-supervisors or advisors. Typically, co-supervisors are members of the supervising faculty (see list, and refer also to PromR 2019, Art. 10 and Art. 12). Alternatively, persons with equivalent qualifications can also become co-supervisors; i.e. they must have teaching experience, conduct research, head a research group, or similar. This is upon request only, see the Application (PDF, 326KB) form. Advisors can be any other involved person (e.g. a technician, external expert, etc), but they cannot assess and grade the PhD thesis and defense.

PhD students are obliged to complete 12 ECTS coursework during their PhD studies. The type of courses is specified in the Appendix to the Studies Program (PDF, 847KB):

Compulsory courses (9 ECTS):

• International Swiss Climate Summer School (3 ECTS)
• Colloquia, seminars and/or Oeschger Seminar Series (6 semesters, 3 ECTS)
• Participation in an international conference, with talk or poster (2 ECTS)
• OCCR Climate Young Researchers Meeting (1 ECTS)

Credits for the Oeschger Seminar Series (6 semesters, 3 ECTS) are given for regularly attending (i.e. each semester throughout the duration of the PhD project) either the series itself or, upon agreement, an equivalent colloquium, research seminar, visiting scientist talks, brown bag seminar organized by the respective research units.

Elective courses (3 ECTS):

• Course(s) of your choice from the MSc program (U Bern and ETH Zurich)
• Any other course(s) (different summer schools, specific training courses, etc.) upon approval by the studies director

Together with your supervisor, you specify the courses you plan to take in the Doctoral agreement (Doktoratsvereinbarung) en (PDF, 292KB). Get the approval by the studies director for elective courses that are not in the Appendix to Studies Program (Overview Master and PhD Courses with ECTS) (PDF, 847KB). Register for the courses in KSL and collect certificates of attendance where applicable; submit them to the studies directorate. For coursework at ETH Zürich, you need to register as special students.

The Graduate School of Climate Sciences offers training opportunities for scientific writing. The course “Writing for Publication in Climate Sciences” is intended for PhD students in the first half of their project and focuses on general writing skills for research articles. The course is not accountable towards the corsework of 12 ECTS (see above).

Tutored Editing
In addition, all PhD students are entitled to one package of individual consultations regarding a scientific article (see Tutored Editing Service (PDF, 235KB)). These consultations are designed to work specifically on texts that are ready for submission / publication. In the consultations, grammar, style and tangibility of your texts will be improved. Before you contact the lecturer, please write to studies@oeschger.unibe.ch for more information.

The graduation process and formalities are defined by the Faculty of Science. It involves some important steps:

• Designate an external co-referee for your dissertation. Fill out the request for authorization,  and hand it in to the studies directorate of the Graduate School of Climate Sciences, who will approve and forward it to the Dean's Office.
• Check the registration and submission deadlines for the evaluated dissertation.
• Set the date, time and location for your PhD defense with your supervisor(s) and the chair examiner. The chair examiner must be a Full or Associate Professor with the Faculty of Sciences. Fill in the "Application Form for Completing a PhD" and follow the instructions.
• IMPORTANT: Please notify the studies directorate about time and venue of your PhD defense, we do not receive this information from the Dean's Office.

Please refer to the
Forms and Guidelines of the Faculty of Science