Reports on doctoral theses

Assessment of the doctoral thesis
Minimum requirements for the expert reports
After the doctoral examination
Medal applications
Rejection of the doctoral thesis

As an examiner, as well as the co-examiners, you prepare a written report on the doctoral thesis and submit it to the department before the doctoral examination. The reviews must determine whether the doctoral thesis should be accepted with or without conditions or whether it should be rejected.

When assessing the doctoral thesis, not only the scientific quality but also the linguistic quality is assessed.

The reviews must determine whether the doctoral thesis should be accepted or rejected and whether corrections are necessary ("accepted with conditions").

If the thesis is accepted or accepted with conditions, the doctoral examination can be carried out.

If further experiments or structural changes to the doctoral thesis are necessary, the doctoral thesis must be rejected. In this case, the doctoral examination cannot take place.

As a rule, the content of the reports is based on the conventions of the discipline. Nevertheless, reviews should contain the following elements:

Date
Contact details of the author (address / affiliation / e-mail)
The letterheads commonly used in written correspondence generally fulfil these requirements.
Name of the author and title of the doctoral thesis
Short summary of the doctoral thesis
Evaluation of the thesis
Recommendation for acceptance or rejection of the doctoral thesis
Signature (electronic signatures are permitted)

Ask your departmental doctoral administration office about further formal requirements and deadlines for the submission of reviews.

After passing the examination, the departmental doctoral administration forwards the following documents electronically to the central doctoral administration ():

All reviews written and submitted for the doctoral thesis (please ensure that the minimum requirements listed above are met).
All graduation requests with the signature of the departmental supervisor (electronic signatures permitted)

For an application for the award of the ETH Zurich Silver Medal for doctoral theses, additional reviews must be submitted.

The same formal requirements apply to these additional reviews as to the reviews written for the doctoral examination.

Further information on awards can be found on the separate information page and in the Download Directive on the awarding of ETH Zurich medals for doctoral theses (only available in german) (PDF, 162 KB).

If the doctoral thesis is rejected for revision, the Chair of the Examination Board shall inform the doctoral student in writing of the further procedure and inform him or her of the deadline for revising the doctoral thesis.

The deadlines may not exceed 6 months. The departmental doctoral administration and the relevant departmental conference must be informed in writing of the agreements made with the candidate.

The reports are confidential (Doctoral Ordinance ETH Zurich, Art 42). The following have access

the members of the examination committee;
the members of other committees that have been appointed to assess the doctoral thesis

After graduation, doctoral students may, upon request, inspect the reports concerning their own doctoral thesis.