Progress report, status conversation and annual report

The purpose of the form DownloadAnnual Report (PDF, 46 KB)vertical_align_bottom, according to the decision of the Department Conference of D-MAVT on 6 March 2018, is to:

• raise awareness of important existing rules at ETH
  
• formalize funding commitment by supervisor
  
• avoid miscommunication between supervisor and student
• raise awareness of help available at ETH
• provide the Department Executive Board with annual feedback on status

The document signed by both supervisor and doctoral students must be submitted to the D-MAVT Doctoral Administration together with the research plan. The form is confidential and will be saved in D-MAVT archive.

Progress Report

Doctoral students who have been definitively admitted write an annual progress report on the status and planned progress of their research project, as well as on any significant deviations from the research project described in the doctoral plan.
The annual status conversation consists of two separate parts:

• Academic progress (basis: progress report)
• Assessment, career and personal development.
  

The Downloadprogress report (PDF, 207 KB)vertical_align_bottom deals with the doctoral project and the research work. In preparation for this, the doctoral student writes a progress report, which forms the basis for the discussion of the research progress achieved and submits it two weeks before the annual status conversation. It is recommended to consult the second advisor on this first part.

Following the earlier DownloadAnnual Report (PDF, 207 KB)vertical_align_bottom (page 2), the D-MAVT template for the progress report contains a page that aims to provide an early-warning system in problematic cases of student-supervisor relationships, to reduce the student/supervisor asymmetry, to formalize the doctoral thesis supervisor’s funding commitment, and to demonstrate the two-way commitment between doctoral student and doctoral thesis supervisor.

To this end, the form includes:

1. an update on the expected date of doctoral thesis submission,
2. comments on the progress of the work, recommended improvements, changes needed, measures to be taken, critical issues with no agreement on the measures to be taken,
3. a funding statement.

This part of the progress report must be sent to the D-MAVT Doctoral Administration. In case of critical issues, the Department’s Board will be notified and may follow up with doctoral student and doctoral thesis supervisor.

Annual status conversation

The Downloadannual status conversation (PDF, 207 KB)vertical_align_bottom (page 3) addresses in addition:

1. discussion and evaluation of the research project based on the progress report;
2. determination of the next steps;
3. the work situation in the research group;
4. the doctoral student’s state of progress within the doctoral studies;
5. personal development possibilities and appropriate measures if necessary.

The doctoral thesis supervisor and the doctoral student are both responsible for storing the progress report and the result of the status conversation until the doctoral student is dematriculated.
In case of critical points without an agreement, the doctoral thesis supervisor and the doctoral student can involve one of the contact points listed on the counseling website.

ETH provides templates for the progress report and the status conversation.