Thesis defense procedures - What to do when

The thesis defense usually takes place between 3-5 years after the enrollment in the doctoral program. Please carefully read the documents below listing details on the end-of-thesis and defense procedures that vary between universities and faculties.

For COVID-related changes and updates please contact the LNDS coordinator.

• What to do and to keep in mind when you reach the end of your thesis done at UNIL (deadlines, adresses etc): an overview done by LNDS
• A short check-list provided by the FBM thesis office (if you are enrolled at the FBM, please also have a look into Covid-related procedure updates; for other faculties please ask the LNDS coordinator directly)
• Template to announce your thesis defense jury once you are submitting your thesis
• Template for the thesis title page for PhD candidates attached to the FBM
• Template for the thesis title page for PhD candidates attached to the SSP
• Instructions regarding the request of your PhD diploma and the deposit of your final thesis manuscript.
• Template for the thesis report to be done by jury experts and the thesis director(s)

• What to do and to keep in mind when you reach the end of your thesis at UNIGE (deadlines, adresses etc): an overview done by LNDS

• Template to prepare your thesis title page in doc-format

• Link to template for preparing your thesis title page (in tex-format; by courtesy of K. Emmert)

• Example of how the thesis title page should look like with all necessary logos

• Introductory/Oral exam - All faculties: This report form must be filled and signed by all jury members. Please send the original to the secretariat of your faculty after the exam. Jury signatures must be original, no copies are accepted! Send a copy to the LNDS coordinator to receive your LNDS thesis number for final manuscript submission. (scanned documents accepted until further notice!)

• Public defense of students enrolled in the Faculty of Sciences or Medicine: This report form must be filled and signed by all jury members. Please send the original to the secretariat of your faculty after the exam. Jury signatures must be original, no copies are accepted! Send a copy to the LNDS coordinator to receive your LNDS thesis number for final manuscript submission. (scanned documents accepted until further notice!)
   
• Public defense of students enrolled in the FPSE: This report form must be filled and signed by all jury members. Please send the original to the secretariat of your faculty after the exam. Jury signatures must be original, no copies are accepted! Send a copy to the LNDS coordinator to receive your LNDS thesis number for final manuscript submission. (scanned documents accepted until further notice!)
   
• Template for the thesis report to be done by jury experts and the thesis director(s)

Please find here some more links to UNIGE websites regarding thesis defense procedures in general, e.g.

• What to do and which time line to keep before the public defense
• What to do after the public defense and regarding the deposit of the final thesis version for archiving
• Potentially important contacts at the Science Faculty

Here is also a link to the free software to help you with grammar and style checking during thesis (and paper) writing.

• UNIGE information brochure about thesis submission procedures in general

Depot_des_theses.pdf  (45 Ko)

You can replace the methods and results section of your thesis with articles only if you have at least one article published or accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. Your contribution must be significant for an article to be considered as part of your thesis. Reviews cannot be used to replace any part of your thesis.  Each thesis project is different. Sometimes, a chain of experiments leads to a publication in a high-impact journal; sometimes a discovery is dispersed across several publications ....

Please read the document below for more information, but contact to LNDS coordinator to inquire on specific aspects and in case of doubts whether your work is eligible for a thesis based on articles.

Writing_a_thesis_with_articles.pdf  (124 Ko)