FAQ End of thesis

The jury proposal, dully completed, printed and signed should be submitted no later than 8 weeks before the oral exam to the doctoral program administrator.

You can fill your jury proposal in your IS Academia student portal. Here is a guide to upload the jury proposal.

Please be aware that the jury composition is the responsibility of the thesis director and must be confirmed before completing this form.

The answer will depend on the doctoral program you are affiliated to. Please contact your doctoral program admin.

Read “Ordonnance sur le doctorat délivré par l’Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne

Jury members (president, director, co-director, examiners)

• Hold the title of PhD.
• Must not have hierarchical relations to one another.
• Must not have a close personal or professional relationship with the candidate or thesis director (married, etc.). In particular, the jury president and the examiners should not have taken part in the work reported in the thesis.

Jury president

• Cannot be part of the same research unit (chair or lab) as the thesis director(s). 
• Is not involved in the thesis work.
• The jury president and the internal examiner are two different people.

Examiners

• Internal examiner cannot be part of the same research unit (chair or lab) as the thesis director(s).
  If, exceptionally, the president and the internal examiner are part of the same research unit (chair or lab), the internal examiner should not be the superior of the president.
• If the internal examiner is the program director, they cannot sign the jury proposal. In this case, the jury proposal must be signed by another program committee member on behalf of the program director.
• An examiner (internal or external) cannot be a previous or current, official or de-facto, (co-)director of the thesis being evaluated.
• An examiner working at the Extension School, which is considered as an EPFL unit, must serve as an internal member.

Other

• The jury must be composed of at least one EPFL examiner (President of the oral exam, Thesis director, co-director or internal expert).
• Invited professors, guests, academic guests and host professors at EPFL cannot be considered as examiners (neither internal nor external).
• Retired professors from the EPF are considered as internal examiner. They cannot act as president of the jury.
• The “Emeritus professor” from other universities are considered as external examiner.

Internal or external examiner?

Federal Institutes of Technology	Internal examiner	External examiner
EPFL
Innovation Park1
EPFZ – ETH
1Depending of the HR Contract (EPFL Contract=Internal examiner; Non EPFL Contract=External examiner )
EPFL Outposts
Campus Biotech Geneva
EPFL Fribourg
IMT Neuchâtel / Microcity
EPFL Valais Wallis
EPF Domain’s research institutes
PSI – Paul Scherrer Institute
WSL – Bellinzona / Birmensdorf / Davos / Sion
EMPA – Dübendorf / St. Gallen / Thun
EAWAG – Dübendorf / Kastanienbaum
Other research institutes
CERN Geneva
CSEM Neuchâtel
IDIAP Martigny
Max Planck Society (MPS)

Please note that according to article 14 of the Directive concerning doctoral studies, the thesis must be submitted at least 35 days before the oral exam on your IS-Academia student portal. Therefore, the deadline is strict and no delay will be granted.

Here is a guide to the submission of the Draft of the Thesis.

You and your thesis directors are both provided with access to iThenticate, which is a tool that highlights any sentences and paragraphs in your documents (scientific reports, thesis) that are also found in other online documents.

In the future, all submitted thesis will automatically be verified with this tool. It will be your responsibility to explain the outcome of this verification to your thesis Director and the President of your thesis jury.

All doctoral candidates are encouraged to take some time to make themselves familiar with the iThenticate tool, and learn how to interpret its results. Given the importance of this issue, you should be cognizant of the tool and try it out on your thesis before it is submitted.

In order to make you aware of the different aspects of plagiarism, and to support you in learning how to reference correctly in your documents, an informative website – Similarity Check – has been put in place. Please check out this informative website, and don’t hesitate to contact the EPFL Library in case you have any remaining questions on plagiarism or iThenticate, and the EPFL Doctoral School if you have questions concerning the verification of your thesis against plagiarism.

Please read the EDOC FAQ President of the oral examination

The tax cannot be paid by your lab/unit. According to the Ordinance on the EPFL doctorate, the doctoral candidate is required to pay the tax stipulated in the ordinance of 31 May 1995 concerning taxes in the EPF domain.

Videoconferencing system and room should be discussed and validated by the PhD candidate and the jury president – please read the FAQ President of the oral exam.

The Doctoral Students’ Office will contact the Reprography for the preparation of the printing of the thesis once the following conditions are filled:

• The thesis director has validated the final version of the thesis on IS-Academia
• The Data Verification request on Service Now has been validated by the doctoral student and their supervisor(s)
• The Doctoral Students’ Office is informed of the details of the public defense (date, time and place) through the dedicated Service Now form (a link to the Service now request will be sent to the doctoral student after the Data Verification is validated)

The Reprography asks for a two-week delay to have the release form ready. The repro will then contact the doctoral student for an appointment to sign the release form (good-for-printing).

You cannot choose format and color. Since January 1st 2019, the cover of all EPFL theses is red and the format is the same for all EPFL theses.

Online form

Yes, your thesis director must attend your public defense as they must preside over it.

Your diploma is usually ready about a week before your public defense. The Doctoral Students’ Office is allowed to give it to you provided that you have

• informed the Doctoral Students’ Office of your public defense details
• submitted your final thesis (PDF) in IS-Academia and it has been formally accepted by your advisor
• signed the good-for-printing of your final thesis at the Print Center (Repro)

We will inform you by email when your diploma is ready. You must come collect it at the Doctoral Students’ Office (BP Building / only by appointment). Should you wish to know whether your diploma is ready before coming or make an appointment to collect it, please send an email to sac-doctorants@epfl.ch

The date which will be on your diploma, and your official thesis, is the date of your public defense, for the EPFL PhD degree and title are officially awarded at the end of your public defense.

Yes, your diploma can be verified online with the Diploma Verification tool.

You can order them on our web form by specifying if you need to receive them by mail, email or registered mail.

Once graduated, foreign nationals can obtain a residency permit for six months in order to look for a job in Switzerland that is consistent with their qualification.

Conditions:

• Providing a certifying letter from the EPFL confirming the end of study (official diploma isn’t necessary)
• Having the necessary financial means
• Having suitable housing

More information can be found on EPFL’s Immigration formalities webpage.

Should you have any questions regarding your personal situation, please contact the Population office (SPOP) or the EPFL Human Resources Team.

While you’re looking for a job you may be eligible for unemployment benefits. To apply, you must have Swiss residency and work permits, and you need to have been employed for at least 12 months within the past two years, earning at least CHF 500 per month. You need to register with the regional unemployment office (ORP) where a case manager will provide support. It’s best to do this as soon as you know that you’ll be out of work – even if you’ll still be working as part of the notice period employers are obliged to observe.

For more information you can contact the Regional Employment Office (ORP) corresponding to your commune of residence or visit the official website of the state of Vaud.

This rule applies only to students who have completed their thesis. PhD students who stopped their thesis during the course of their studies are unfortunately not allowed to stay as their permit is linked to their student status.