EDCE Annual report

In order to evaluate the progress of the thesis and the knowledge of the PhD student, the thesis director (and co-director if applicable) and the PhD student meet once a year to prepare a report.

The information is entered into an online tool, see below, that will generate a final PDF document as a report.

Access to the online tool is via a link sent by your doctoral program and connection with your GASPAR account (or Guest account for co-directors outside EPFL).

Annual report’s process

Each year, starting one year after the Candidacy exam, you have to submit an annual report to your thesis director on the state of progress of your work. To prepare your report, you will receive the link to the online tool  1 – 2 months before your annual report is due. (for example: candidacy exam date 1.5.2021, annual report is due at the latest on 1.5.2022) From the submission date you have 2 months to complete the whole process.

You are requested to fill in 3 sections with:

  • your basic information;
  • your research progress: you will complete this section and then discuss it with your thesis director (and co-director if applicable) during the annual report meeting;
  • and a self-assessment of your progress: this section is completed separatly by you and your thesis director (and co-director if applicable), then discussed and approved by both during the annual report meeting.

Please note that the content you fill in is not confidential and will be available to all parties at the time of the annual report meeting and once the process is completed.

You will then also discuss this report with your mentor in a confidential face-to-face meeting.

Finally, the report will be sent to the director of your doctoral program for verification, and everyone involved will receive a PDF version of the report by email.

Please note that the information is not stored in the online tool.

Should you have any questions:
Annual report’s process

Once your PhD student completed the annual report, you will be requested by email to connect to the online tool to review the information provided and complete your progress evaluation. Please try to do this within 2 weeks.

Please note that the content you fill in is not confidential and will be available to all parties at the time of the annual report meeting and once the process is completed.

You will then be asked by email to arrange a face-to-face meeting with your PhD student (and the co-director if applicable) to review the information, discuss goals achieved and planned, and evaluate overall progress.

During this collaborative review, you, as thesis director, will be able to access the content to be edited and completed.

Finally, the report will be sent to the director of the doctoral program for verification, and everyone involved will receive a PDF version of the report by email.

Please note that the information is not stored in the online tool.

The whole process must be completed in 2 months

Should you have any questions:
Annual report’s process

As part of the annual report, mentors meet with their PhD students to discuss the evaluation confidentially.

The following themes could be discussed:

  • Advancing as a researcher (what has gone well, less well, how to improve, goal setting, which resources are needed, …)
  • Facets of career-building (contributions to the community, conferences, awards, networking opportunities, participating in possible soft skill courses on writing, communicating, managing, spin-off training, …)
  • Work-life balance
  • Communication (within the laboratory, with the thesis director and other lab members, matching expectations in terms of progress and future goals, …)
  • Life after the PhD (what kind of career options are there and how to explore them, …)

You will be notified by email in order to arrange a face-to-face meeting with your PhD student and you will have to confirm in the online tool that the meeting has taken place.

At the end of the process, you, as mentor, will receive a PDF version of the report by email.

Please note that the information is not stored in the online tool.

Annual report’s deadlines

The annual report process starts on the anniversary date of your mentee’s immatriculation.

The whole process must be completed in 2 months

Should you have any questions:
Annual report’s process

You, with the doctoral program’s admin in copy, will be notified by email each time a doctoral student in your program submits an annual report.

In the online tool, you will have to confirm that you have checked the annual report and you may indicate any comments you have. This task can be delegated to your admin in order to distribute the number of reports to be confirmed. However, it is you as doctoral program director who remains responsible for the follow-up of these annual evaluations.

You will then receive a PDF copy of the report by email, as well as all the people involved in the annual report (PhD student, thesis director, co-director if applicable, mentor and admin).

Please note that the information is not stored in the online tool.

Should you have any questions: