In Switzerland, similar to Germany, Denmark and Sweden, PhD students are hired by the host institute/university as a research assistant. However, they suppose to take courses as part of their PhD studies as in Denmark (which is not the case in Germany). In other words, PhD students are not generally part of PhD program rather than they are involved in research activities of the host group (professor).
https://youtu.be/fIJ5f_z6XAk
Generally like other european countries, you should directly contact the group leader (professor) that you would like to be your supervisor. However, in many swiss universities, PhD positions are also advertised in the job portal of the universities. There, you can find most of the available PhD positions in different departments.
There are however many doctoral programs for PhD students in some of the departments or institutions. In that cases, you should get in touch with the coordinator of the program and apply through the admission portal of that particular program. For instance, the Life Science Zurich Graduate School is one of those doctoral program which are offered by ETHZ and Zurich University (for details see the link).
Top research institute:
EPFL is one of the research institutions which offer plenty of doctoral programs (see here). Currently they offer 19 doctoral programs whereas each program has its own application procedure and deadlines. So, if you are interested in pursuing your PhD at EPFL, you should follow the instruction and deadline of that particular program (for details, see here).
University of Basel also offers various PhD (doctoral) programs where students should take courses and workshops offered by the host or external institutes beside doing their research activities. To see the details follow the link.
In this post, we are not going to list the application procedure of each single universities in Switzerland but just to give you overall information about the common practice in the country if you wish to pursue your education in PhD level in Switzerland. However, you can find many other relevant information concerning cost of living, salary and BSc or MSc study in Switzerland in the following links.
- International Bachelor programs in Switzerland
- Some international Master programs in Switzerland
- How much does it cost to study in Switzerland? How much is the tuition fee?
- How much does it cost to live in Switzerland as a student?
- The list of universities in Switzerland
You can find the latest PhD job vacancies in Switzerland in Academic Career section of our website.
You can also find the study programs to study in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Netherlands, Germany and Austria in our Website.
Useful Information for applying PhD program
Detailed informations about the academic salary in Switzerland and comparison of the academic salary in Europe can be found in the following links:
Here you can exchange your experience as a student living/studying abroad or ask questions from your fellows. Start from here.
Official Website: http://fastepo.com/2017/05/17/how-to-apply-for-phd-programs-positions-in-switzerland/