Within the first 6 months after approval

Please send the following documents to the Dean of Studies Office at the Medical Faculty:

• Doctoral Agreement with detailed research plan (template, guideline, How to write a proposal)

Annually

Once a year the PhD board of the Medical Faculty (Promotionsausschuss) examines the status of your work. Please send the following document to the Dean of Studies Office at least three weeks before an PhD board meeting (list of upcoming board meeting dates):

• PhD agreement update (template)

The Department of Clinical Research (DKF) supports PhD students in the planning and implementation of their research project. Take advantage of the DKF consulting services and seek advice as early as possible so that your work is on the right track from the very beginning.

By the way, if you are a member of a DKF clinical research group, you can benefit from numerous free courses and reduced course fees.

A number of scholarship opportunities are available for PhD students. The Grants Office offers personal advice. Further information is provided by links on the right.

National MD-PhD Fellowships Program

For MD-PhD students the Swiss Association for Medical Sciences (SAMS) offers a National MD-PhD Fellowships Program.

Applying for this national funding is also a prerequisite for qualifying for local funding (e.g. VW Pool or Alumni Foundation). However, local funding is not awarded in every case, but according to your ranking in the national application.

Next to your dissertation and the doctoral examination, the acquisition of credit points is an essential part of the PhD training.

You will compile an individual learning agreement (find template here) together with your first supervisor. The learning agreement will be part of your doctoral agreement and will contain a list of classes and courses accounting for at least 18 ECTS in the 3 fields of competence Knowledge & Science, Organisation & Management, Leadership & Human Resources. The learning agreement has to be approved by the PhD board of the Medical Faculty and submitted to the university via https://services.unibas.ch/.

Courses without ECTS credits

Courses that are based on workload instead of ECTS credits are recognised automatically if they are listed and approved in the learning agreement.

Recognition of postgraduate programmes (CAS, DAS, MAS)

Postgraduate programmes or modules from such programmes can be recognised for the learning agreement if you waive the postdraduate programme certificate, as your learning achievements would otherwise be counted twice. You must confirm the waiver of a postgraduate certificate with your signature.

The mentoring program (Mentoring-Programm) of the Faculty of Medicine aims at the personal transfer of strategies and procedures related to professional and career planning.

The University of Basel has a strong demand on creating an environment of good scientific practise and strongly concerns on research integrity.

Successful completion of the (MD-)PhD programme involves three parts: The dissertation, which must include at least three publications in peer-reviewed journals as first author. At least one of these must have been accepted at the time of submission of the dissertation. The acquisition of at least 12 ECTS credits, two thirds of which must be acquired within the subject-methodological training. And finally, the thesis defense.