The candidate chooses a degree conferral date from the list provided by the Faculty:

http://www.oec.uzh.ch/en/studies/general/graduation/degree-deadlines.html#6

He/she hands in the completed graduation forms to the PhD Program Coordinator.

The degree conferral date determines the deadline of the defense. The candidate schedules the date of the defense with his/her supervisor accordingly and the Phd Program Coordinator looks for a chairperson for the defense, which has to be a member of the PhD program committee.

The advisor shall determine the additional reviewers for the PhD thesis according to the following guidelines:

1. Three reviewers per thesis (the supervisor + two additional reviewers) is the current default.
2. The second reviewer (external) has to have no conflict of interest with the PhD candidate or the first reviewer. Specifically, the second reviewer cannot have published with the PhD candidate and cannot be the PhD supervisor or a previous student of the first reviewer.
3. For the third reviewer (internal or external) the conflict of interest rule does not apply.
4. Additional reviewers (fourth and so on) can be added if wanted. The conflict of interest rule does not apply for these additional reviewers.

Definition of conflict of interest:
The second reviewer has to have no conflict of interest with the PhD candidate or the first reviewer. Specifically, the second reviewer cannot have published with the PhD candidate and cannot be the PhD advisor or a previous student of the first reviewer.

The reviewers will write a graded review of the thesis and hand it in to the PhD program coordinator no later than two weeks prior to the defense.

The candidate hands in a digital copy to the program coordinator no later than six weeks prior to the defense.

For the defense, the candidate prepares a presentation of about 20 minutes. There will be a discussion afterwards. The defense will take about one hour.

After the defense, the candidate finalises the thesis. The advisor confirms that the thesis fulfills all content-related requirements by signing his or her part in the “Request for printing approval” (DOCX, 66 KB) form (German: “Antrag auf Druckgenehmigung" (DOCX, 66 KB)). After that, the signed form has to be submitted to the Department Office together with all documents necessary for checking the formal requirements.

The thesis can be published after having received the signed “Request for printing approval”-form back from the Department Office. Publication has to be done within two years counting from the degree conferral date.

 

Printing and Publication of the PhD Thesis

Please find the detailed description here