Doctor of Philosophy in Physics
Admission to the Doctoral Degree Program
Admission into the doctoral degree programm occurs mainly through the individual research groups and their principal investigators, to whom applications should be directed, see the research pages of the groups for availability of positions.
As a condition for admission into the Physics doctoral degree program, the University of Basel requires a Masters degree (usually, but not neccessarily, in Physics) or a degree considered equivalent to a masters degree, click here for details. Applicants holding a Masters degree from numerous Universities as well as students with a Diploma from Swiss, German or Austrian Universities should have no problem being admitted. Please feel free to contact the admissions office for specific information. For applicants holding other degrees that might be considered equivalent to a Masters degree, the admissions committe of the Faculty of Science will make a decision on a case by case basis. A Bachelors degree will generally not be considered sufficient for admission into the doctoral degree program.
To obtain a Ph. D. in Basel, there are no course requirements. However, doctoral students are encouraged to follow advanced courses (offered for the Masters degree program) to extend or deepen their knowledge. Also, once applicants have found a Ph. D. advisor and once applicants have met the admission criteria as described in the above paragraph, no further examinations are usually required for admission into the Ph. D. program.
International Students
The scientific language used at our department is generally english. While knowledge of german language might be helpful in everyday situations, participation in research projects will not require german language and numerous PhD's have been awarded to students who do not speak german. Our Institute hosts a diverse community of scientific personnel originating from a large number of countries. Basel, located where Germany, France and Switzerland merge, is and has long been a multi-cultural city. Today, Basel is also one of the major centers worldwide in Life Science and Bio Technology due to the thriving activities of the numerous Pharma, Medical and Chemical companies located here. More information for international students is available here.
Foreign Doctoral students from countries other then the EU usually need a (student) VISA to be allowed to study in Switzerland. With an appropriate letter from our Department / the corresponding research advisor, this VISA is usually obtained within a few days from the corresponding Swiss embassy abroad.
All doctoral students at our Department enjoy employment, usually as teaching assistants, with a salery sufficient to cover the cost of living and studying in Basel. This also means that all doctoral students will have to devote some fraction of their time (usually between half a day to a day per week) during the semesters towards teaching exercises, laboratory courses or other educational activities. These teaching activites can also be performed using english language. Employment outside the Department for students on a VISA is not usually allowed. Tuition at the University of Basel for doctoral students is currently CHF 150.-- per annum, click here for details.
Important
The information on this web-site is not legally binding and may not be updated to reflect to most recent changes to the study regulations. To obtain more informaiton, please contact the chairman of the studies commission, .