EDPO Candidacy exam

The exam lasts for about one hour and begins with your oral presentation of the research plan and the obtained results for 20 to 30 minutes. Thereafter the jury questions the candidate; the questions are mainly on the research plan, but the jury may question the candidate on any topic related to his field of research.

The Doctoral candidate must organize the candidacy exam with his director by following these steps:

Please note that a minimum of 4 ECTS is required at the end of the first year. You have not yet accrued them because you are attending a course ending at the end of the semester for example, you have to complete and send us a request of extension to obtain credits.

  1. Set a date and room for the exam.
  2. Organize and convene the jury who is composed of:
    • one president,
      – Internal Doctoral candidates (paid by EPFL) you will find the list of agreed jury presidents here.
      – External Doctoral candidates (paid by company), please ask the director of EDPO to preside your exam.
    • one expert, usually a teaching staff member of EPFL. This person must hold a PhD and cannot belong to your laboratory;
    • In addition, a second internal or external expert can be part of the jury.
    • Your Thesis director and Co-director, if applicable.
  3. Once you have set the date and room, and your jury has agreed to participate, please send to the administrative assistant of the program the jury proposal (generated on IS-Academia) in PDF, at least three weeks before the examination. This document does not need any signature.
  4. Please forward the PDF of your research plan to the members of the jury and the EDPO office ([email protected]) at least 10 days prior the examination. Please use this template only a follow the index carefully. Add the cover sheet generated by IS-Academia duly signed by yourself and your supervisor(s). Please send the original research plan (paper version) to the EDPO office within the same deadline.
  5. EDPO office sends the form for the evaluation report by email directly to the jury president before the candidacy exam.