Course rules
Each PhD student has to earn 12 ECTS (credit units) before the oral thesis exam.
4 of these credit units have to be earned within the first year, before the Candidacy Exam.
Before enrolling for courses, PhD students should ensure that taking such courses doesn’t create conflict with their other assignments at the EPFL and discuss the decision with their thesis director as his/her prior approval is required. More details on the EDCB course book.
The PhD Students can earn credits not only from EPFL PhD programs, but also from:
- EPFL Bachelor and Master programs
- other external (non EPFL) PhD programs (approval of the program director needed)
- official PhD transversal skills courses listed here (of which the credits do not count in the first year)
Please note that the course below is mandatory for all EDCB PhD Students:
- BIO-664 Responsible Conduct in Biomedical Research (1 ECTS)
EDCB students should furthermore take this course within the first year of their PhD.
Course enrollments
Enrollments in EPFL courses can be done by the EDCB PhD Students directly in IS-Academia, providing that they have obtained prior validation by their thesis director. For certain non EDCB PhD courses, you will be required to enroll through the administrator of the given PhD program. Therefore, please follow the instructions given by the program offering the course.
External PhD courses (non EPFL courses)
Students can earn credits from other external doctoral courses if the EDCB program director approves them beforehand and this approval is documented in writing: course description, number of hours, organizing institution and instructor. Provision of credits follows the EPFL rules, in terms of duration and evaluation.
1 credit = 28 hours of work (contact hours + hours of personal work), with a written or oral examination of the student.
Please use the following document for your external course credit request and follow the instructions on the top of the form: