Doctorate in science - PhD
Procedure to follow
It is recommended for students interested in undertaking an MD/PhD to consult the lists of the research fields within the Faculty of medicine. These lists are available on internet and are organised by department or by division. One can access them through the Faculty website (http://www.unige.ch/medecine/) under the chapter Research and the fundamental and clinical medicine sections. This information is also listed in the catalog of publications and research established by the University, available at the fundamental and clinical library.
Preliminary steps to take
Once one has decided to undertake an MD/PhD, these are the next steps to take
- Ask the president of the MD/PhD committee for a certificate. This certificate is mandatory for students who want to join the courses required during the first year.
- It is possible to start following courses of genetics and molecular biology at the Faculty of science either during one's medical studies (usually as of the fourth year), or during the first year of the MD/PhD, at the same time as the laboratory work. Examinations related to these courses must have been passed successfully.
- Deposit a thesis project with the MD/PhD committee as soon as the final medicine exam is passed. The project is drafted under the supervision of the director of thesis, who must be a member of the teaching staff of the Faculty of medicine. The committee will then proceed to evaluating the project so as to put forward the candidate's application for a federal MD/PhD grant.
The candidate will have to register first of all for the programme of molecular and cellular biology of the Faculty of medicine, including the teaching modules that are organized at the Centre Medical Universitaire (CMU), as well as to the courses and laboratory sessions of the Faculty of science, under the biology option.
After having successfully passed the first year, the candidate will have to submit his/her thesis project to the joint biology-medicine committee, the only committee authorized to accept it within the PhD programme of the Faculty of science.
The laboratory research usually lasts four years, but can go up to six years. After a first period of one year to one and a half years, the candidate will submit his/her first results to the biology-medicine committee during an oral presentation. It is only then that the candidate will be definitively accepted. The thesis director will propose two subjects of examination, one oral and one written.
A written version of the thesis must be subjmitted to the biology-medicine committee and then defended in front of a jury.
For candidates applying for a doctorate in science in a different field from biology, it is necessary to contact the president of the MD/PhD committee, who will take all necessary steps, in accordance with the candidate, with the identified persons in charge working at the Faculty of science.
Fonds national suisse de la recherche