Joint-PhD Agreement

A Joint-PhD Agreement (“cotutelle de thesis”) of doctoral theses refers to a collaboration between two higher education institutions that both hold the right to award the doctoral degree. For further details, please refer to the SwissUniversities link.

A distinction can made between:

• “Internal” Joint-PhD Agreement, in which a doctoral student already enrolled at USI, Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society, requests – in agreement with their Thesis Director – authorization from the Doctoral College to initiate an agreement with another University located in a different country. In this case, the doctoral student and the PhD Thesis Director identify a potential supervisor at the partner University and informally verify their availability.

• “External” Joint-PhD Agreement, in which a doctoral student already enrolled at a University located outside Switzerland requests – in agreement with their Thesis Director – authorization from the Doctoral College to initiate an agreement with the Faculty. In this case, the doctoral student identifies a potential Thesis Director at the Faculty and informally verifies their availability. Eligible to supervise a Joint-PhD doctoral thesis are Faculty professors (full, associate, assistant, titular, or adjunct) as well as Faculty lecturers and researchers authorized to supervise PhD theses. The list of Faculty professors and researchers, together with their research interests, can be consulted here (link).

Further information – including regarding financial support – is available from the USI Research Service (link).