From the University Assembly

Ensuring the well-being of doctoral students

Under the direction of Antonio Togni, Vice Rector for Doctoral Studies, a working group has drafted measures relating to doctoral studies. These are compiled in the “Development of doctoral studies”, and set out in particular the rights and duties of doctoral students and their supervisors.
The catalogue of measures asserts that concrete and binding rules regarding scientific development and a code for interpersonal cooperation are necessary. Addressing this, the University Assembly has now drawn up a number of questions and comments, such as “Are specific checks and measures planned in order to effectively implement the existing and new rules?”

In general, the UA welcomes the strengthening of support for doctoral candidates through the introduction of a secondary supervisor. It considers however that this person should be an expert in the candidate’s field of research, although not necessarily a professor. The Assembly also advocates the possibility of changing the second supervisor if the field of research develops in a new and unplanned direction; cutting-edge research must have the opportunity to make specialist adjustments at short notice.

The UA also proposes a mentoring or buddy scheme. The persons taking on this trust-based support function would complement the specialist supervision; mentors should have no influence on the research, but deal primarily with interpersonal matters.

Dealing with disciplinary cases

The ETH Disciplinary Code applies to students, doctoral students and student in continuing education. It has become necessary to revise this code because the previous triage of cases was not effective. For “minor infringements”, the Rector was previously responsible, while “non-minor offences” were assigned to the disciplinary committee. Up to now, triage was decided in the education legislation division (Academic Services).

The previous triage method meant that the disciplinary committee had to be convened on account of the “seriousness” of a rule violation, even where both the facts and evidence were clear and the disciplinary committee had little room for manoeuvre.

Under the revised Disciplinary Code, the Rector will now decide whether the disciplinary board need be convened for a procedure. The UA has no objection to this new provision, as it simplifies the process. However, it notes that the revised Code prescribes a general tightening of “dishonourable” versus “dishonest” conduct, and questions whether this is really necessary. The UA also doubts that “dishonest conduct” can actually be proven in emergency cases.

ETH employees are not affected by the disciplinary code; any misconduct, however, has consequences for personnel law.

Safeguarding the autonomy of ETH Zurich

In the ETH Domain, the autonomy of the individual institutions is an essential component of governance. The planned partial revision of the ETH Law, on which the Assembly has commented, could result in losses, particularly in the areas of finance and real estate.

The UA supports the efforts of the Executive Board to continue to manage ETH Zurich as autonomously and independently as possible in the future. Research and teaching need flexibility; tied financial resources, in particular, limit this flexibility. The broad scope of the institutions of the ETH Domain should not be restricted by over-regulation on account of a few incidents.

Increasing paternity leave

Due to extensive suggestions arising from the first reading of the partial revision of the Personnel Ordinance, a second revision was necessary.  The UA welcomes in particular the increase in paternity leave from 10 to 20 days, but points out that this can only be a first step towards parental leave, where both parents can freely determine their respective share of the care time between themselves.