Admission

Before beginning the process of admission, prospective doctoral students have to search for a main supervisor in the Faculty of Theology. Members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Bern who are Professors, Assistant Professors, Lecturers with "Habilitation", Advanced Postdocs, or Senior Research Assistants can be main supervisors. Lists of members of the Faculty of Theology can be found on https://www.theol.unibe.ch/index_eng.html under "Institutes".

The Faculty of Theology is not required to supply main supervisors for potential applicants.

Prospective doctoral students first have to contact a potential main supervisor with a short abstract (approximately one page) of the planned doctoral work using the form Doktorat_Theologie_UniBE_Beschreibung_Stellungnahme_eng.docx below.

If the answer is positive, the main supervisor has to write a statement confirming their willingness to supervise the doctoral student until the award of their doctoral degree, and confirming that the quality of the planned doctoral work meets the necessary scholarly requirements. They also have to sign a Confirmation of Supervision (see Step 2).

Together with the doctoral student, the main supervisor then has to select at least one additional supervisor.

Further steps detailed by the University of Bern's Admission Office then have to be taken. These steps can be found here:

https://www.unibe.ch/studies/programs/doctorate/application/index_eng.html

The application deadlines mentioned there have to be met.

In particular, a form for the Confirmation of Supervision has to be completed. There are two different versions of this form, one for Swiss Master's degrees and one for non-Swiss Master's degrees.

PLEASE NOTE: A Confirmation of Supervision for non-Swiss Master's degrees has to be submitted to the University of Bern's Admission Office for formal assessment before moving on to Step 3. For Swiss Master's degrees, Step 3 can follow immediately.

Requests for admission to doctoral studies then have to be submitted to the person presiding the Doctoral Committee via the Dean's Office. 

The following documents have to be submitted together with a letter requesting admission:

• a Confirmation of Supervision at the University of Bern with all documents and signatures mentioned on this form [see Step 2],
• b Short abstract (approximately one page) of the planned doctoral work [see Step 1],
• c Statement of the main supervisor confirming their willingness to supervise the doctoral student until the award of their doctoral degree, and confirming that the quality of the planned doctoral work meets the necessary scholarly requirements (see Step 1),
• d Copies of BA and MA degree certificates (or equivalent degree certificates),
• e Copies of transcripts of records of BA and MA degrees,
• f Curriculum Vitae,
• g Statement about the choice of either a PhD in Theology or a PhD in Religious Studies
• h Statement about the choice of either an individual doctorate or a doctorate within a doctoral programme.

The requirements for admission and the equivalence of degrees are then checked. This is done, on behalf of the Doctoral Committee, by the person presiding the doctoral comittee, the person leading the coordination of academic studies in the Faculty, and the person leading the Dean's Office. The main supervisor is consulted in this process.

The decision about a successful admission - and where necessary the amount and sort of compulsory additional coursework - is communicated by the Dean's Office of the Faculty of Theology to the main Admissions Office of the University of Bern as well as the Doctoral Committee. Should admission be denied, this decision has to be made by the Doctoral Committee.

Following a successful admission, the Dean's Office forwards the necessary documents to the Admissions Office of the University of Bern which completes the matriculation process.

Within six months of matriculation, the first Doctoral Agreement and an outline of the planned content of the doctoral work have to be submitted to the Doctoral Committee. The forms and further information are provided here:

Doctoral Agreement and Outline