Switzerland
Excellence in education
Tips to introduce yourself to the process
A prerequisite for the application all Swiss Government Excellence Scholarships are supervised and supported by a professor. The first step in the application process for the scholarship candidate is to find a professor at a Swiss academic institution willing to act as their academic supervisor for the scholarship research project.
What should you do before contacting a potential academic supervisor? Watch this video
The FCS encourages candidates to find their supervisor on their own. There is no specific support offered in this bottom-up matching process. It is each applicants own task.
A support letter from a host professor is required in any case. This is valid for doctoral school (doctoral programme) and Ph.D. applications as well. If the chosen doctoral school does not allow you to contact a supervisor before being admitted to the school, the application for the Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship is not possible.
Understanding the role of academic supervisors
Professors reported to the FCS that they are frequently contacted by scholarship applicants asking for support. Therefore the FCS secretariat issued a leaflet explaining the role of an academic supervisor for a Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship holder.
The FCS recommends potential academic supervisors not to support more than 1 - 2 applicants per year. You find the leaflet «Will you be my supervisor?» enclosed in your application package. Feel free to use it when contacting your potential supervisor.
Preparing your application
Four admissible languages
The application documents have to be submitted in English, French, Italian or German. If your documents are not in one of these languages, then an authenticated translation in English must be included. Attestations can be done by a university or a government officer.
Complete and signed applications are valid only
Please fill in the forms carefully and completely. Sign the form and the research proposal. Only signed applications are valid
and eligible.
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Hello,
Take into account that you will need more documents than just filling out the application.
Contact us and we will send you the documents you will need.
PS: As soon as you fill out the application, don’t forget to send us an e-mail with your confirmation. We will send you the PDF you need to download and sign.
We look forward to hearing from you!