4. After 3 months

After moving to Switzerland, you have three months to take out the mandatory (basic) health insurance. As an employee of the University of Lausanne, you are already insured against accidents and can therefore exclude accident coverage when taking out a health insurance policy. As premiums can vary widely between different insurers, it is best to compare what the different offerings are. A good resource to do this is the website – COMPARIS. It is especially worth mentioning that you do not need to already have your residence permit in hand before taking out the basic health insurance. An attestation from your commune that you have registered your arrival/applied for a residence permit is enough. The same applies for opening a bank account. Once you have taken out the insurance it is back-dated to when you arrived to Switzerland and you will have to pay for the months during which you already stayed in Switzerland.

Health insurance – compare premiums and save

PhD students in IDYST, are required under university rules, to officially enroll for the PhD program at the University of Lausanne within 1 year of the start of their contract and latest by the thirteenth month of the contract. In addition, university rules stipulate that a PhD degree can only be granted if the candidate is actively enrolled in the University as a PhD student. The procedure for enrolment varies depending on your nationality and whether your previous education was conducted in Switzerland, in an EU/EEA country or in a non-EU/EEA country. The necessary information concerning this can be found here – PhD students at UNIL. The information you need - UNIL IMMAT

A non-refundable application fee must be paid and proof attached to the application in order for it to be processed. Importantly, applications must be sent by postal mail to the university admission service. Upon successful treatment of the application and the payment of a semester fee (initial fee is usually CHF 200 and subsequently CHF 80), the registration certificate (attestation d’inscription) can be printed from your MyUnil page.

Furthermore, the University of Lausanne has developed doctoral program projects in collaboration with other universities of South-West Switzerland (CUSO). These CUSO courses are especially recommended as they enable the fostering of connections with PhD students from other universities. For more information on CUSO, the following links are useful:

Earth Surface Processes & Paleobiosphere (ESPP): Welcome (cuso.ch)

Programme transversal de développement des compétences génériques: Activities (cuso.ch)

In addition, the code of practice for the doctorate highlights the active roles and shared responsibilities of doctoral candidates and their supervisors. It can be found here: Charte_anglais_FINAL.pdf (unil.ch)