Venia Legendi

From request to conferral

Central administration.
Academic Services: The candidate receives guidance from the ETH Academic Services Information & Planning Office on the form and documentation of the habilitation request as stipulated in the ETH Zurich Habilitation Ordinance.

To obtain the venia legend, the candidate is required to have teaching experience at ETH Zurich.

Department.
Please contact the respective departmental administration office for the following information:
- Details of the habilitation process and any extra department requirements (watch out: these are sometimes more specific and greater in scope than those in the ETH Zurich Habilitation Ordinance)
- Further information on the habilitation thesis (scope, content, the relation between published and unpublished articles, etc.)
- The expected timeline

Habilitation theses are assessed by two ETH referees and at least one external referee. External candidates will therefore benefit from seeking out an ETH Zurich mentor at an early stage.

The ETH Academic Services Information & Planning Office checks and confirms the submitted request, and then forwards it to the responsible department for the habilitation procedure.

The final application for the habilitation and conferral of the venia legendi is addressed to the Rector by the department (professors’ conference) and is handled by the ETH Academic Services Information & Planning Office.

A venia legendi decree and certificate are issued.
Date of habilitation = Date of the decree “Conferral of the venia legendi”
Date of the venia legendi = Starts on the next upcoming 1 February or 1 August

With the conferral of the venia legendi the title Privatdozentin/Privatdozent is conferred.

Renewal, resignation/withdrawal

One of the factors governing renewal of the venia legendi is fulfilment of teaching duties as set out in Art. 11 of the ETH Zurich Habilitation Ordinance. We therefore advise Privatdozenten to keep in regular contact with the responsible department regarding the type, scope and content of their courses.

Privatdozenten are informed of the expiry of their venia legendi one semester in advance. At the same time their attention is drawn to any gaps in their fulfilment of teaching duties.

The request for extension or for resignation is forwarded to the department. A renewal or withdrawal decree is drawn up on the basis of the department’s (professors’ conference) request, which is addressed to the Rector and handled by the ETH Academic Services Information & Planning Office.