Enrolment at the University of Zurich (UZH) and participation in the PhD Program in Plant Sciences are two distinct, yet closely interconnected processes.
Doctoral candidates must follow the official regulations of their host university. In parallel, the PhD Program in Plant Sciences provides guidelines for structured doctoral training, including coursework and skills development.
The sections below outline the key doctoral procedures and explain how UZH regulations relate to participation in the PhD Program.

At the UZH, doctoral studies are governed by university-level and faculty-level regulations. The central legal framework for doctoral education within the Faculty of Science (MNF) is defined by the Ordinance for Obtaining a Doctoral Degree at the Faculty of Science of the University of Zurich (LINK) . This ordinance establishes the general requirements applicable to all doctoral candidates at UZH and within the MNF, including provisions related to admission, supervision, doctoral agreements, progress monitoring, and degree completion.
Within this regulatory framework, structured doctoral training is further supported through the LSZGS, which provides an overarching organizational structure for PhD programs in the life sciences at UZH and ETHZ. LSZGS does not define independent doctoral regulations but operates in full alignment with UZH and faculty ordinances, offering coordinated training, mentoring structures, and quality assurance mechanisms through its affiliated PhD programs.
In addition to the general university and faculty regulations, LSZGS and its individual PhD programs define complementary program-specific regulations that relate exclusively to the structure and documentation of doctoral training activities. These additional regulations specify, in particular, expectations regarding coursework, ECTS credit allocation within the PhD Program, and the organization of structured training elements. They do not affect the formal requirements for obtaining the doctoral degree and are designed to remain fully compatible with the overarching UZH and MNF governance.

Plant Sciences at UZH

Doctoral candidates participating in the PhD Program in Plant Sciences are enrolled at the Faculty of Science and conduct their PhD research in a range of departments reflecting the breadth of plant sciences at UZH. These include, in particular, the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, the Department of Geography, the Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, and the Department of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany. Regardless of departmental affiliation, the academic responsibility for supervision, evaluation, and awarding of the doctoral degree remains with the host faculty and the supervising professor(s).

The PhD Program in Plant Sciences is designed to operate downstream of the university and faculty regulations. Its program-specific training regulations provide a transparent framework for coursework and skills development, while ensuring complete compatibility with existing governance structures and avoiding any additional administrative or academic burden for doctoral candidates.

Students aiming to enrol at UZH, have to register in a PhD Program first and then matriculate at UZH.

1. To enroll in a PhD Program, you need to fill in the registration form (PDF, 278 KB) and interview protocol (PDF, 64 KB) and send it back to the PhD Program Coordinator. (more information here). 
2. Once you are accepted into the PhD Program, you can submit an official admission request at UZH along with other required documents. For this process, you can find more information here:

About UZH Matriculation
Online Application at UZH
Application Portal
Documents needed for admission at UZH (Faculty of Science)

Please note that we are responsible only for admission into a PhD Program. For matriculation at UZH is responsible UZH Admissions Office.

The PhD Program in Plant Sciences operates alongside, but independently from, central UZH administrative structures such as the Office of Student Affairs. Program responsibility lies in the organization of structured doctoral training, including coursework, transferable skills development, and interdisciplinary activities. Where relevant, the PhD Program provides procedural confirmations or documentation within existing faculty processes. However, all academic and administrative decisions related to the doctorate remain with the respective UZH bodies.
The table below helps you identify the appropriate contact point depending on your request.

At the Faculty of Science (MNF) of the UZH, doctoral studies are administratively managed through Student Admin, an online platform launched by the Faculty to track the PhD process from admission to graduation. The system provides an overview of the required doctoral processes and milestones, which must be completed and updated within the defined deadlines in accordance with the applicable faculty regulations. For each milestone, the platform outlines the relevant requirements and documentation to be submitted. Milestones are reviewed and confirmed within the faculty framework, typically involving the doctoral committee head and the MNF / the program coordinator, ensuring transparent and standardized monitoring of doctoral progress.

Access to Student Admin is automatically generated following successful matriculation at the UZH.
 

Doctoral Committee (PhD Committee) should be assembled within six months of the start of the doctorate. The PhD advisor, with the understanding of the doctoral student, must establish the doctoral committee. The committee consists of at least three members, of whom at least two — including the committee head — must hold the right to award a doctoral degree at the MNF. The composition of the doctoral committee, as well as any subsequent changes to its membership, must be recorded in MNF Student Admin and reported to the MNF. The PhD advisor and the doctoral committee are responsible for providing the doctoral student with regular feedback on the quality and progress of the research project, doctoral training, and teaching activities. The doctoral committee is expected to meet with the doctoral student at least once per year. The outcomes of these meetings must be documented and reported via MNF Student Admin.

Doctoral Agreement due date is also within six months of the beginning of the doctorate. The doctoral committee and the doctoral student must complete a doctoral agreement. The agreement serves as a central planning and documentation instrument and must be submitted via MNF Student Admin to the MNF. The doctoral agreement addresses, in particular, the composition of the doctoral committee, the working title of the dissertation, a short description of the research project, milestones timeline and intermediate goals (in 500 words), the agreed curricular portion of the doctoral studies (including internal and external coursework), and planned teaching activities. The doctoral agreement may be updated during the annual doctoral committee meetings in response to changes in the research project or training plan. Any modifications must be documented and submitted via MNF Student Admin in accordance with faculty regulations.

Teaching Plan and Teaching Duties are another important milestone for PhDs enrolled at UZH. Doctoral candidates at the MNF are required to contribute to teaching for a minimum of 100 hours and a maximum of 420 hours during their doctoral studies. To plan teaching activities, doctoral students must upload the form Planning Teaching Activities, provided by the respective division, via MNF Student Admin. Upon submission, a dedicated milestone for the Teaching Duties is automatically created in the system. The initial teaching plan does not need to be final and may be updated as the doctorate progresses. Detailed rules and procedures regarding teaching activities are defined at division level and are available in the relevant guideline documents. Doctoral students are encouraged to consult the Academic Support Office of their division for specific questions related to teaching obligations and opportunities. For the Division of Biology please contact phd.teaching@biol.uzh.ch.

Committee Meeting 1 should happen twelve months after admission. Doctoral candidates must organise the first PhD committee meeting. The PhD committee is responsible for the thematic and methodical monitoring of the thesis, for the formulation and supervision of the complementary course work and for the decision to continue or discontinue the thesis. The student submits, presents and defends a research plan, including key milestones, planned publications, planned teaching activities, planned courses and a time plan. The thesis committee chaired by the supervisor writes a protocol of the meeting, which is then signed by all involved parties. If the committee has specific recommendations, they have to be summarized and supplemented in an Appendix. All documents including thesis committee meeting protocol (PDF, 275 KB) need to be submitted as a milestone to the MNF Student Admin. Requests for deadline extensions must be formally submitted and approved in accordance with MNF and UZH regulations.

Annual Doctoral Committee Meetings ensure regular feedback by the thesis committee to the PhD candidate. At least 2 fully reviewed committee meetings are necessary to register for graduation. Further committee meetings are required, if the graduation does not take place within 18 months of the last committee meeting. The minutes of each committee meeting must be documented and uploaded to MNF Student Admin. For doctoral candidates enrolled in the PhD Program in Plant Sciences, these records are also visible to the PhD Program coordinator for procedural tracking purposes.

Documentation of Teaching Activities should be uploaded to Student Admin prior to thesis submission. Doctoral students are required to list each teaching activity separately and with the correct title to ensure accurate certification of teaching contributions. This milestone should be submitted shortly before registering for graduation.

Course Work is a required milestone before registering for graduation. Doctoral students at the MNF must complete coursework amounting to at least 12 ECTS credits during their doctoral studies. The planned and completed coursework must be discussed during the annual doctoral committee meetings and approved by the doctoral committee. To complete the coursework milestone, doctoral students must upload a summary of earned ECTS credits, the official transcript of records, and the declaration of good scientific practice, which is issued upon completion of the scientific integrity course.  You can upload individual course certificates, however, please do not submit this whole milestone until ALL your credits have been uploaded.

Registration for Graduation can only be completed once all required doctoral milestones have been fulfilled, with the exception of the most recent doctoral committee meeting. Doctoral students must submit the structured registration form via MNF Student Admin, including the title of the dissertation, a PDF version of the thesis, and the date, time, and location of the public colloquium and the closed disputation. The thesis defence must take place no later than eighteen months after the most recent doctoral committee meeting, in accordance with MNF regulations.

Doctoral students at the MNF must complete coursework amounting to at least 12 ECTS credits during their doctoral studies. One ECTS credit corresponds to approximately 30 hours of work. Full presence and active participation during the entire course is necessary for earning ECTS credits. Participation in some course involves an individual or group work e.g. by completing homework assignments, a presentation or a report during the course.

The curriculum structure concerning PhD candidates enrolled at UZH is illustrated in the table below and it is composed from compulsory activities, core elective activities and other elective activities.

Compulsory Activities encompass the participation in the PSC colloquium on "Challenges in Plant Sciences" (2 ECTS) and the training on Research Integrity. Students must attend the “Introductory Lecture to Good Scientific Practice and Scientific Integrity ” (2 hours, no ECTS). This lecture provides an introduction to the central rules of good scientific practice and familiarizes the students with various types of codes of conduct and guidelines that apply to research in the life sciences. The main aim is to raise the students’ awareness of the rules and regulations that concern their own work and to introduce and explain the “Declaration of Good Scientific Practice” that all PhD students of the LSZGS are asked to sign. Registration for the course. 

For more information about courses see the CURRICULUM of the PhD Program.

COURSES FROM ETHZ 

Regularly enrolled doctoral candidates of the UZH may attend courses at ETHZ that are related to their field of study and complete the corresponding performance assessments. In order to do so, they must register at ETHZ as "Special Students". Registration is valid for one semester only. Registered Special Students can then enroll in individual course units (lectures, exercises, seminars, etc. designated for doctoral students) via the web application myStudies. Enrollment and any necessary deletions of course bookings must be completed no later than the end of the fourth week of the semester. If no course units are registered by the end of the fourth week of the semester, the Special Student registration, including the ETH User Account, will be deleted automatically. Registration, course attendance, and participation in examinations at ETHZ are free of charge for regularly enrolled UZH doctoral candidates. Further information is available here.

COURSES FROM UNIBAS

Students who are enrolled at UZH are allowed to attend individual courses at UNIBAS and can earn credit points (courses up to a total of 20 credit points per semester). They do not pay any tuition or auditing fees. The completed and signed registration sheet must be submitted, along with a scan of a student ID or a confirmation of matriculation from the home university valid for the corresponding semester. Registration is done using an online form.  Please send the documents as soon as possible in order to get access to the Online Services by the beginning of the lecture period. The deadline for submission is the first day of the lecture period each semester.
Further information is available here.

ECTS acquired outside ETHZ, UZH, UNIBAS, or associated LSZGS PhD Programs require formal accreditation by the PSC office prior to recognition.

Accreditation requires submission of:

1. a certificate of attendance or completion,
2. the course or event programme clearly indicating the topic, duration, and workload (including contact hours, preparatory work, assignments, or presentation preparation, where applicable),
3. documentation of active involvement where relevant (e.g. conference abstract book or programme),
4. pdf of a poster or presentation, and
5. a completed PSC External Activity Recognition Form (PDF, 135 KB) signed by the PhD supervisor.

Recognition is subject to confirmation by the PSC PhD Program Coordination office. Documents should be sent to psc_phdprogram@ethz.ch.

You can upload all your course certificates under the milestone "Coursework" in Student Admin. Please do not submit this whole milestone until ALL your credits have been uploaded!

All MNF doctoral students at the UZH must participate in teaching to the extent of 150-420 hours during their doctorate. In addition to the contact time, the preparation and follow-up times are also taken into account when calculating the number of hours. The following activities can be counted towards the teaching requirement: supervising bachelor students in practical training during lower-level courses, supervising bachelor and master’s students’ research projects in the lab (practical training in advanced courses), grading exams and problem sets, teaching at the Science Education Center. Please consult the following website for details of the teaching requirements. Planned teaching activities need to be submitted to the UZH MNF platform Student Admin.

Successful graduation from the PhD program in Plant Sciences will be attested by a joint Diploma Supplement from the three participant institutions (ETHZ, UZH and UNIBAS). The certificate will be presented once all the program’s requirements have been fulfilled and the responsible university has awarded a doctorate.
The following requirements must be fulfilled to graduate from the doctoral program Plant Sciences:

1. completion of all the requirements set by the university / division where the student is matriculated for graduation,
2. a successful defense of your dissertation containing original research,
3. earning 12 ECTS credits that fulfill the curricular requirements of the program,
4. obtained doctoral degree from the university.

To receive the PSC PhD Program certification (Diploma Supplement) please send the following documents to the PhD Program in Plant Sciences coordination via e-mail:

1. a pdf of your doctoral degree certificate along with
2. a list of all training activities and corresponding certificates (merged into one pdf file) to claim your ECTS.
3. a postal address to which the Diploma Supplement should be sent.