Applying for Financial Aid
FOR MASTER DEGREE APPLICANTS
Master candidates can apply for financial aid by filling in the application fields concerning their financial situation. Academic departments and the interdisciplinary programme do not have access to this information when they decide on the admissibility of candidates. When making its decision regarding the allocation of scholarships for admitted master candidates, the Financial Aid Committee will decide whether to award a full or a partial scholarship and/or tuition reduction, depending on the applicants' financial resources and the excellence of their application.
Once candidates have been granted admission and funding, provided that their financial situation does not change, the award will be renewed for the second year. They will thus be able to finance their entire course of study.
Master candidates who want to apply for financial aid must document all the elements that impact their financial situation, including all sources of income, liquidities, capital and contributions from family members and other organisations.
FOR PHD APPLICANTS
All PhD candidates are eligible for financial support, regardless of their financial situation. When completing their application form, doctoral candidates should not fill in the fields relating to their finances, which only apply to master programme candidates. Academic departments rank the files of all the PhD applicants they admit based on academic excellence and originality of the research project. They then submit their rankings to the PhD Admission and Financial Aid Committee.
PhD financial support is provided in the form of a 4-year package (2 years full scholarship and 2 years Teaching Assistantship). Packages are awarded based on the ranking established by academic departments. These packages are awarded to the six most highly ranked candidates in each department.
A full scholarship is 20,000 CHF, payable in 10 monthly instalments starting in September. It allows the PhD candidates to focus on their research, to undertake fieldwork or to participate in a mobility programme.
A Teaching Assistantship is a contract that offers the candidates a total monthly remuneration of 3,300 CHF, with a combination of a salary of 1,900 CHF (15 hours of work per week) and an excellence scholarship of 1,400 CHF. The Teaching Assistants are assigned to several courses within their department (usually half of their courses) and the interdisciplinary master programme (the other half). As teaching assistants, they participate in the implementation of the course(s), assist the professor(s), lead a session or a series of tutorials and are an integral part of the teaching team. During their contract, they are required to attend a Professional Development Programme which will enable them acquire key professional skills: pedagogical innovation, e-learning, introduction to gender and inclusion issues in teaching, advice on how to build a research project and secure its funding, etc.
More about support for PhD student