Graduating around the globe
MIREILLE BÉTRANCOURT & PIERRE DILLENBOURG
Switzerland
So close and yet so different! Our labs are located about 60 KM away from each other, in Geneva and Lausanne, respectively, both in the French-speaking region of Switzerland. Our research activities in both labs address learning technologies, they share a strong experimental flavor and yet, we’ll see that the PhD processes are very different. This fact won’t surprise those who know that this country of 8 million inhabitants counts no less than 26 ministers of education, which reveals how deeply local differences are rooted in the Swiss culture.
The University of Geneva (UNIGE) is a comprehensive university with about 17,000 students, while Ecole Polytechnique Federal in Lausanne (EPFL) is a science and technology university with 12,000 students. Each university counts more than 2,000 PhD students. Our PhD processes do, of course, share some similarities: the duration is 4 to 5 years; the final jury is generally composed of 3 to 5 persons, including one from a different lab at the same school and one from another university; students are expected to have published
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