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Withdrawal from supervision / Termination of the doctorate

If the collaboration is not promising or a collaboration is no longer reasonable, you must withdraw from supervising the doctoral thesis.

We recommend that you take the necessary care during the recruitment process to ensure a good basis for a successful doctorate.

Nevertheless, it can happen that the day-to-day collaboration turns out differently than expected or that the doctoral student does not perform as expected. Discuss this at an early stage and record agreements in writing. Communicate expected objectives in writing and warn the doctoral student that supervision and extension of the contract will not be possible if they fail to perform.

1. Written preliminary information

If you are seriously considering withdrawing from the supervision of the doctorate after you have demonstrably set clear and realistic goals and these have not been achieved, inform the doctoral student in writing. The preliminary information should be provided at least 3 months before the withdrawal of the supervision (and/or expiry of the employment contract). If the doctoral candidate has an employment contract, you should also inform your HR partner promptly.

2. Withdrawal from the supervision

The withdrawal must be justified. The doctoral candidate, the second supervisor, the Vice-Rector Doctorate and the Departmental Doctoral Committee must be informed in writing.

3. Agreement on results already achieved, research data and authorship

In an agreement with the doctoral candidate, you regulate the use of data and results already obtained and the rights to authorship. The agreement must be concluded in the spirit of good scientific practice in accordance with the relevant guidelines issued by the Executive Board. The ETH Zurich confidants can provide advice when drawing up the agreement; in the event of disagreement, they must be consulted. The agreement must be sent to the doctoral committee and the central doctoral ddministration office for information.

Doctoral students are enrolled at ETH Zurich for a further 6 months after the withdrawal of the supervisor in order to find a new supervisor for their doctorate.

If you intend to withdraw from supervision of the doctoral thesis, communicate this to the doctoral students in good time and inform them at least 3 months before the end of the contract that the employment contract will not be extended.

If a withdrawal occurs after an employment contract has been extended, you are obliged to continue paying the salary until

  • the doctoral student has found a new position and thus leaves the Group or ETH,
  • the contract expires, or
  • the doctoral student is unable to present a new supervisor after the 6-month period has expired and is subsequently dematriculated.

The event that occurs first is decisive.

If doctoral students wish to discontinue their doctorate, they must submit a Downloaddeclaration of withdrawal (PDF, 889 KB) to the central doctoral administration office.

If the doctorate is linked to employment at ETH Zurich, please contact your responsible HR partner as soon as possible.

If the doctoral student has already found a new supervisor for the doctoral thesis, this must be requested from the Doctoral Administration Office using Downloada form (PDF, 285 KB).

Even in the case of a change of supervisor, a written agreement must be made regarding the achieved results, research data and authorships.

Further information

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