Co-examiners

Co-examiners for a doctoral thesis at D-MAVT must adhere to the following criteria:

1. At least one co-examiner must be from outside ETH Zurich and have proven expertise in the subject of the doctoral thesis (an active professor from another university, or a person who has proven expertise in the subject area of the doctoral thesis and is equivalent to a professor, e. g. Max Planck Director, Directeur de Recherche in France, or Reader in the UK). Professors from Universities of Applied Sciences or from the private sector with a corresponding expertise do not count towards this requirement, but they can be admitted as additional co-examiners.
2. If the doctoral thesis supervisor is a adjunct (titular associate professor, Titularprofessor*in), at least one elected ETH professor without a hierarchical relationship to the Titularprofessor*in must be a co-examiner (a hierarchical relationship exists, if the Titularprofessor*in was in a professor’s lab prior to promotion to Titularprofessor*in, or if the Titularprofessor*in belongs to the same lab as a professor).
3. For external doctoral theses: at least one co-examiner must not have been involved in the research and must be an independent professor.
4. If the doctoral thesis supervisor has retired, at least one other professor from ETH Zurich must act as a co-examiner.

The information about the proposed co-examiner(s) has to be listed in the Download"Request of appointment of co-examiner"form (PDF, 31 KB)vertical_align_bottom at least three weeks before the Department Conference, who approves/rejects co-examiners. After the approval the D-MAVT Doctoral Administration informs the Academic Services.

According to ETH decision the co-examiner defined in the point a) can be an ETH professor and can be not external for doctoral examination who takes place before 1 January 2024.

Please read the DownloadD-MAVT Complementary Regulations on Doctoral Affairs (PDF, 260 KB)vertical_align_bottom for further information.