Aptitude colloquium
Within twelve months after provisional admission, doctoral students defend their doctoral plan in an aptitude colloquium.
In doing so, they prove they can assess the relevance of their research area and place it in the current context of scientific research. Passing the aptitude colloquium is a condition for definitive admission to the doctorate.
The aptitude colloquium takes place 9-12 months after provisional admission. The deadline can be found in your admission letter or can be viewed in myStudies.
The aptitude colloquium is structured as followed:
- a public presentation of maximum 30 minutes
- a public discussion
- closed to the public: questions to the doctoral student by the members of the aptitude committee in a session of at least 30 minutes. Other D-ERDW lecturers and thesis advisors are admitted and can ask questions to the candidate after the examiners.
Aptitude committee
The aptitude colloquium is conducted by the aptitude committee, which is at minimum composed as followed:
- supervisor of the doctoral thesis
- second advisor: expert on subject matter and must have a doctoral degree
- chairperson: a D-ERDW professor or if the independent co-examiner is a professor, he/she may also act as the chairperson. If, due to special circumstances, an ETH professor (non D-ERDW) chairperson is proposed, the supervisor must agree to direct the chairperson to the D-ERDW specific regulations and the chairperson agrees to hold the proceedings in accordance with the D-ERDW stipulations.
- independent co-examiner: not involved in the doctorate and outside of the research group
Aptitude colloquium timetable
If the aptitude colloquium cannot be completed within the first year, a request for extension of the deadline must be submitted.
4 weeks before
Fix date and time for the aptitude colloquium with your supervisor, chairperson, and aptitude committee. Inform the D-ERDW doctoral administration by handing in the aptitude colloquium title page.
2 weeks before
Send your doctoral plan to each member of the aptitude committee two weeks prior to the aptitude colloquium. Prepare and print the decision form.
Discuss and fix your learning agreement with your supervisor in myStudies. All planned courses and credit points of your doctoral studies must be listed there. At least 12 credit points must be earned, covering the following three categories:
- Subject Specialisation
- Integration into Scientific Community
- Transferable Skills (≥ 1 ECTS credit points for course on good scientific practice and ethics)
A minimum of 4 credit points have to be outside of your research field. The mandatory course Ethics and Scientific Integrity for doctoral students of D-ERDW counts as an external (outside research field) course.
No later than 4 weeks after the aptitude colloquium
After having passed the aptitude colloquium, all the documents (title page, decision, and doctoral plan) must be submitted to the D-ERDW doctoral administration as one PDF document.