Staff Exchange Options: PhD and Postdocs

Outbound Exchange Options

Within Europe, the UZH operates within Swiss-European Mobility Program (SEMP) and maintains exchange contracts with several partner universities, which offer reciprocal semester exchange opportunities for PhD students. The SEMP framework further offers funding opportunities for in- and outbound teaching or training staff mobility.

PhD students from the UZH English Department who would like to do a semester exchange have the possibility to do so at one of our partner universities. A list of possible exchange places can be found via the Mobility Online search portal.

1. Discuss your exchange plans with your PhD supervisor.
2. Choose a university that interests you via the Mobility Online Search Platform.
3. Register on Mobility Online.
4. Upload all of the required documents to Mobility Online and complete your full application before the deadline (for HS exchange: January 15, for FS exchange: 15 July). 
5. The Global Student Experience office checks your application. If the application is complete and there is a free semester slot for a PhD exchange, the GSE sends you an offer, which you need to actively accept.
6. If you accept the offer, the study abroad coordinator nominates you at the partner university.
7. The partner university contacts you after the nomination and you need to apply there separately.
8. You are accepted by the partner university.
9. You choose courses, which you are interested in. If there are courses that you want to accredit to your doctoral program, please contact the study abroad coordinator to fill out an accreditation form.
10. You create the Learning Agreement (LA) in Mobility Online and send it to the relevant coordinators to collect all signatures. After that, you upload the LA to Mobility Online before the deadline set by the UZH Abteilung Global Student Experience.
11. You go abroad.
12. In case you need courses accredited: After your stay abroad, you send your transcript of records to the study abroad coordinator who checks your documents and starts the accreditation process.

The UZH Doc.Mobility offers PhD students the chance to conduct part of their research at another institutions abroad (6-12 months).

The UZH Doc.Mobility is the successor to the SNSF Doc.Mobility which was discontinued in 2020. It offers PhD students the chance to go abroad for six to twelve months to conduct part of their dissertation at another research institution. More information can be found on the UZH Doc.Mobility website.

The UZH Graduate Campus offers worldwide travel grants to junior researchers who would like to stay abroad at another university, participate in summer/winter schools or conduct field studies abroad.

Junior researchers who wish to go abroad for min. two weeks and max. two months, may apply for the competitive travel grant by the Graduate Campus. For more information on the types of activities that are supported and on how to apply, please visit the GRC Travel Grants website.

Inbound Exchange Options