Who may submit a dissertation?
Medical doctors and dentists who have completed their studies in Switzerland, as well as students of medicine and dentistry at a Swiss university, may submit their dissertation to the University of Bern Faculty of Medicine if it was supervised by a habilitated person of the Faculty of Medicine, or where such a person is the applicant.
Pathway to a doctorate
The specific doctoral procedure and all conditions are described in the factsheet "Submission of a dissertation" (in German) further down the page.
Doctoral students must be enrolled for the entire period until they obtain their doctorate. The University of Bern Admissions Office (ZIB) is responsible for enrollment. To apply for a doctorate in human or dental medicine, please submit your doctorate confirmation to the ZIB. You will find the confirmation of supervision form here.
University of Bern Master's graduates can print out the confirmation of supervision during the registration for the doctorate. This is explained in the factsheet "Submission of a dissertation" (in German).
If you have any questions, please contact the Dean's Office of the Faculty of Medicine. You will find the details of the various contact people on this page. A list of all relevant documents is available at the bottom of this page.
Doctorate Fee
The doctorate fee of CHF 500 is to be paid to:
Berner Kantonalbank, 3001 Bern
In favour of:
Universität Bern
Dekanat Medizinische Fakultät
3008 Bern
Account Nr: 30-106-9
IBAN: CH14 0079 0042 3257 7519 3
BIC/SWIFT: KBBECH22XXX
Doctorate Dates
Doctorates are usually issued four times a year. In 2025, on April 16, June 25, September 17, and November 26.
Submission Deadline
Please note that it takes at least three to four weeks to process the dissertation documents. For theses that are sent to a faculty reviewer, the processing time is considerably longer. For these reasons, documents submitted at short notice before the doctorate date cannot be accepted.
Doctorate Ceremony
The next doctorate ceremony will take place on Saturday, March 1, 2025, at the Kursaal Bern. It will be held in two rounds: 1st round at 13:00 / 2nd round at 16:00.
Ombudsperson
If disagreements or problems arise between doctoral students and their dissertation advisors, the Dissertation Ombudsperson is available to assist:
Prof. em. Rudolf Brenneisen
Phone: +41 31 351 31 01
Email: rudolf.brenneisen@unibe.ch
Postal address:
Swiss Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Frikartweg 9a
3006 Bern
