You will find here general advice as well as useful resources for members of the intermediary staff.

ACINE, as a non-profit association based solely on voluntary contributions, does not have the means to provide legal advice. Nevertheless, you will find below the most important information on the assistantship, the doctorate and the post-doct.

Regulations for doctoral assistants

The assistantship is governed essentially by the Loi sur l'Université of 2 November 2016. In summary:

• Assistant positions are reserved for people who are committed to completing a doctoral thesis. If the assistant has not started his/her thesis after one year, the contract is normally not renewed.
• The period of employment is 4 years, renewable from year to year. Beware, it is up to the professor in charge to send the renewal request, 5 months before the end of the contract.
• An extension for a 5th year will be granted if it is proven that the thesis can be completed within this period. Applicants must submit a reasoned request 5 months before the end of the contract.
• The responsible professor must ensure that the assistant can devote at least 50% of his or her time to the thesis. At the same time, the administrative and technical tasks entrusted to the doctoral student must not exceed 20%.
• The age limit for recruitment is set at 30 years for doctoral assistants and 36 years for post-doctoral fellows (with exceptions related to maternity/paternity or dual academic competence).

Regulations for Ph.D. students

The submission of the thesis is governed by the internal regulations of each faculty, which must nevertheless comply with the directives of the rectorate. The Faculty of Law maintains a very well-done page containing information on this subject as well as on problems related to assistantship. For the rest, you will find more detailed information in the faculty regulations:

• Faculty of Law
• Faculty of Humanities
• Faculty of Science
• Faculty of Economics and Business

All the legislative documents, in particular the decrees of the Neuchâtel Council of State, the directives of the rectorate and the internal regulations, can be consulted on the website of the rectorate’s legal service.

For more general information on the doctorate, you can consult the guide du doctorant published in partnership with other Swiss universities (version 2014). Also in English: “getting your thesis off to unine”.

Regulations for post-docs

For general information about the status of young academics (post-Ph.D.), you can consult the post-doc guide (version 2014) published in partnership with other Swiss universities.