EDCE Mentoring

A mentor can be an excellent resource at EPFL

Every doctoral student is assigned a mentor, a professor from the EDCE program.  You are free to change the mentor in consultation with the program director.

The mentor’s role is to support the doctoral student and advice during their doctoral studies. The mentor provides guidance during the PhD, discuss career strategy with the student, or any other topic related to the PhD that the student feels like discussing. The mentor can provide unbiased advice related to academic world, and the student should make the most of having the opportunity to discuss with a more experienced scientist. Importantly, the mentor does not supervise or co-supervise the student’s thesis but is the primary contact for any issues with the thesis director or within the laboratory.

The mentor remains anonymous with respect to the thesis director(s) to ensure confidentiality. It is the doctoral student’s decision to keep this anonymity or not.

In the first months of their PhD, we suggest the doctoral student meets with the mentor to discuss the mentor’s role, and both parties expectations regarding the mentoring relationship. Additoinally, as part of the annual reports, the mentor meets with the doctoral student to discuss the progress of their work and their well-being in the laboratory. The PhD student is responsible to organize this meeting.

Mentors regularly meet with the program director to discuss anonymously any problems reported by doctoral students. Only with the agreement of the doctoral candidate, the program director takes the necessary measures.

Your mentor is a valuable resource and is available to discuss your academic progress and provide guidance. Please feel free to contact your mentor whenever you deem necessary.