General rules

At the beginning of the first year of course, each PhD student must present his/her education plan to the "Collegio dei Docenti" (Board of the Doctoral School), chosen according to the rules explained below. The Board reserves the right to ask the student to modify the education plan, based on the student's background and needs.

Regular class attendance is mandatory. Students must give maximum priority to lessons and exams during the first year of course. Any research activity that heavily interferes with lessons and exams must be postponed to the second and third years.

Doctoral students must also choose a "tutor/supervisor" who is fully responsible for the student's education and research projects. The tutor must be chosen among the professors or researchers of UNIGE, or among researchers of scientific institutions who have a valid and specific cooperation agreement with UNIGE (currently, CNR, IIT and INFN).

Education plan

The Education Plan of each PhD student must be approved by the Board of the Doctoral School.
In the education plan, the student will have to follow, as a rule, 4 courses during the first year and 2 courses during the second, and take the relative exams. The Board may approve a different reasoned distribution of the six courses in the first two years.

The courses must be part of one of the following categories:

  • dedicated PhD courses in Physics, lasting approximately 20 hours;
  • Master's Degree courses in Physics; an entire semester is equivalent to two dedicated PhD courses;
  • other doctoral courses or other master's degree courses: up to a maximum of 2 out of 6.

The college encourages doctoral students to participate in internationally recognized and prestigious schools, and, if possible, finances participation in such schools. Each student can request to replace one of the 6 courses by attending to an International School, lasting at least 30 hours of lectures. The substitution of a course with a School is subject to approval by the Board. The replacement proposal must be formulated at the presentation of the education plan. The student must present a report to the Board on one of the topics learned during the School.

Admission the the following year and final examination

To be admitted to the following year, first and second year PhD students must present a short report (~ 2 pages) on their activity. For the didactic part, the students must list the courses followed and the exams passed. For the research activity, students must to describe the progress of their research project and report on their results (with list of publications, communication to conferences, etc.).

The report is due by September 30th. The scientific part of the report will then be discussed through the presentation of a poster, which will take place on a day dedicated to PhD students, to which the PhD students will have to participate. The poster day will take place around mid-October.

Third year students must follow the admission procedure for the final exam according to the schedule established by the Higher Education Service of the UNIGE.