Admission to doctoral studies generally requires a master's degree from a higher education institution recognized by the University of Basel. The faculty-specific doctoral degree regulations specify additional admission requirements as well as the discipline-specific requirements with respect to equivalence and supervision. Degrees granted as part of continuing education programs do not meet the eligibility criteria for admission to doctoral studies.
Applicants are admitted by the rectorate at the request of the respective faculty. The Student Administration Office and the Dean's Office of the Faculty of Science are responsible for this process.

Application for Doctoral Studies at the University of Basel

PhD Regulations Faculty of Science (only available in German)

Getting a PhD position usually means either applying for an advertised position or finding an alternative funding source, including a qualified supervisor. See Join the PhD program for more details.

You are generally expected to live in Switzerland, or the border region during your PhD. This requires a residence permit. Depending on your nationality, a visa to enter Switzerland for the first time might be necessary as well, and the process of obtaining the visa can take some time.

Visa/Residence Permit

When living in Switzerland, there are several obligations to fulfil, one being health-insured and accident-insured. If you are a salaried employee, your employer is obliged to take out accident insurance for you, and a premium is deducted from your salary. There are many health insurers available, and depending on your personal situation, some may be a better fit than others. You should spend some time getting familiar with the system, your options and deadlines to switch.

You can find more information about living in Switzerland at ch.ch (government page including legal information).

Starting a PhD is generally a two-part process and consists of:

1) finding a supervisor and starting your employment as a doctoral candidate

2) matriculation as a PhD student at the University of Basel (the administrative formal process of enrollment as a PhD student at the University of Basel)

The matriculation may take some time to be processed (up to 6 months), meaning that confirmation of your student status (that you might urgently require, e.g. to obtain your visa) may not be available as soon as your employment contract starts. If this is needed urgently, you should contact the Student Administration Office and the Dean's Office of the Faculty of Science.

The PhD Program Environmental Sciences provides a great framework to fulfil your ECTS requirements when doing a PhD at the University of Basel. You will be able to choose courses fitting the research agenda of the department, meet peers and build your network. The mandatory courses are carefully selected to provide a solid base for conducting high-quality research (e.g. following suitable research ethics and integrity as well as tailored data management to increase reusability and reliability of research, support with data analysis and writing publications), whereas the elective courses provide you with the choice to develop additional and transferable skills for your future career.

Typically, the PhD is the first time in your academic career that you work more independently than before. This comes with great opportunities but also risks. To maximise the former and minimise the latter, a good understanding of the regulations, requirements and expectations is necessary as these determine whether you fulfilled your duties to finish the PhD. 

To ensure that you are on the right track to successfully finish your PhD, yearly Doctoral Committee meetings are held to discuss your plans, progress and expectations and check/update your Doctoral agreement accordingly. The Doctoral Committee meetings serve for expectation alignment with your supervisor(s)/committee and provide a formal check-in during the PhD to address any problems that might arise early on and find ways to solve them together.

Doctoral Agreement with sheets for the Doctoral Committee meetings (Faculty of Science)

Discussion on Doctoral Agreement: Instructions for use (GRACE)

Suggestion for an agreement to align expectations with your supervisor (avuba)

Credit points may also be awarded for activities/accomplishments outside the normal course and lecture program of the university (e.g. conference contributions), stipulated in the so-called learning contract (LC). Before the activity/accomplishment for which they intend to obtain credit points, doctoral candidates are required to create an LC in the Online Services. Important: It is worth providing a meaningful title for the activity, as this will appear on the degree transcript. This title cannot subsequently be amended. It is also worth choosing a title in English, as this will not be translated on the English version of the degree completion documents. Once the LC has been created, the approval process is initiated. The LC is automatically forwarded to the assessor (usually the First Supervisor) for examination. Following the approval of the assessor, the LC is again automatically forwarded to the responsible staff member of the department or institute (DUW PhD Coordinator). Once the LC has been approved by the responsible staff member, the academic achievement can be performed. Afterwards, the LC can be assessed online by the assessor. Further information and the procedure for external assessors can be found in the corresponding documentation in the Online Services. 

For academic achievements during doctoral studies at another university, a learning contract is not necessary, but a confirmation (in the original) of successful completion must be submitted to the Dean's Office. To recognize these credit points for the doctoral degree, the confirmation must be signed by the First Supervisor before submission to the Dean's Office.

PhD Guidelines Faculty of Science (page 2, 1.2 Credit points and learning contract)

The University of Basel provides a Support Services Guide, and GRACE provides a catalogue of Advisory Services of specific interest to PhD students, where you can easily find the right contact for your question.

For the following areas, the University offers specific offices/contacts or has persons close to you with the designated responsibility:

Starting the PhD → Your Supervisor/research group secretary, Student Administration Office, Welcome Center, DUW PhD coordinator

Employment conditions → Decentralized HR/research group secretary

Duration of employment/funding → Supervisor

Finishing the PhD → Faculty of Science Dean's Office

Funding for attending international scientific meetings and research journeys of a short duration (travel/other fees for conference/workshop participation) → Travel Fund

Information/support and funding of your academic career  → Career Advancement Office

Mental health -> Student Advice Center

Registration for the PhD Program Environmental Sciences → PhD Program Environmental Sciences coordination office

Feedback/wishes for course topics within the PhD Program Environmental Sciences → PhD Program Environmental Sciences coordination office

Recognition of external courses for the PhD Program → PhD Program Environmental Sciences coordination office

Reimbursement of travel expenses for attending external courses as part of the PhD Program → PhD Program Environmental Sciences coordination office

The Faculty of Science PhD guidelines regulate the procedures required to defend the PhD thesis. It is advised to have read the PhD guidelines of the Faculty of Science initially when starting your PhD and to revisit them later when needed/well in advance of the time of your planned defence (as the date of the defence is tied to other dates, i.e., committee and faculty meetings, see Complete your PhD Journey for details).