This information is intended for current and future thesis co-directors who are not affiliated with EPFL and who wish to better understand the steps and conditions for the success of their doctoral candidates’ journey.
As a co-director, you will have access to your teacher portal on IS-Academia , the annual report tool of your doctoral candidate(s) and to the validation of extension requests on the ServiceNow tool.
Unless you are already an EPFL employee, you will not have an EPFL email address. You will however be able to access these tools via a username connected to your professional email address.
Since the digital identities are protected in EPFL via the Microsoft Entra ID authentication system, your password will be managed with a two-factor authentication process you will have to initiate as soon as you become co-director.
For more information and guidance, please consult Authentication.
Thank you for informing us of any email address change at [email protected] .
Doctoral candidates and their thesis director can request the appointment of one thesis co-director. The request must be submitted via the doctoral program for approval by the Associate Vice President for Doctoral and Lifelong Education.
The required form is available from the doctoral program and will ask to justify how the expertise and resources provided by the proposed thesis co-director will contribute to the thesis. The CV of the thesis co-director must be attached.
If approved, you will receive an email from the Registrar’s Office to confirm your appointment.
Both the thesis director and the thesis co-director take part in all academic assessments (candidacy examination, annual reports, oral examination, public defense) and supervise the doctoral candidate throughout their studies. This applies irrespective of whether the thesis takes place at EPFL or off-site or as a mixture of the two.
Note that the thesis director, based at EPFL, has ultimate responsibility for decisions concerning the progress of the thesis vis-à-vis the doctoral candidate and EPFL.
If the thesis takes place off-site and any issues arise that hinder the doctoral candidate’s progress, the thesis co-director must inform the thesis director without delay so that EPFL can offer the necessary support.
The name of the thesis co-director appears on the diploma and the cover page of the thesis. You will therefore be asked to physically sign the diploma.
If you cannot physically sign the diploma, please contact us (at [email protected]) and we can arrange to collect your digital signature so that you can sign the diploma electronically.