Courses and Examinations

PhD candidates may attend courses at the University of Bern or external courses and summer schools offered by other recognized institutions. Acknowledgement of external courses for the PhD are subject to the agreement of the mentor.

Course coordinators, instructors and administrators.

The operation of KSL should be self-explanatory for lecturers. An introduction is of course possible on special request by contacting VSL Support. Information on training courses for other CTS user groups (e.g. subject coordinators) can be found in UNI INTERN. If you have any questions, please contact VSL Support.

GCB External Coursework ECTS (PDF, 74KB)

Students

Good planning and organization of your studies does not guarantee good grades, but it is a good starting point. It is important to note that there are different registration procedures for the various courses and assessments. In particular, there are different deadlines for the registration and deregistration of the various courses and assessments. Lecturers announce the conditions of the individual courses, in particular the modalities for registration and deregistration to/from courses and/or assessments in the first sessions of the semester. You must not assume that you can find all information on the web. If in doubt, ask your lecturers or tutors or the student advisors (Studienfachberatung).

GCB Courses

A one-page information sheet is available to download at the end of this information. This provides you with the information you need to manage your studies and register for courses in CTS/KSL.

CTS/KSL

  1. Download the GCB CTS / KSL Information sheet (below) for a one-page guide to the course planning and administraiton system.
  2. Most courses offered by the University of Bern, including those by the GCB, are administered using the CTS/KSL platform. This includes course and exam registration.
  3. Exams - the course organizers (institution) will schedule the respective examination or performance assessment and specify its format. Registration is predominantly via CTS/KSL.
  4. Access to the CTS/KSL platform is available only by log-in with your SWITCH edu-ID.
  5. Technical problems with CTS/KSL log-in should be addressed directly to the CTS/KSL support team. Include your full name and matriculation number with the request, as well as KSL Root Nr. and relevant semester, e.g. FS20xx if the issue relates to a particular course..
  6. Learning videos are available on the CTS/KSL website and in the CTS/KSL platform.

 

University of Zurich (Vetsuisse Faculty Zurich) PhD Students

  1. Register at the University of Bern to receive your campus account and link your SWITCH edu.ID to have access to the CTS/KSL platform.
  2. Proceed with the steps above.

 

External Coursework completed outside the University of Bern

 

Steps

 

For Approval

  1. Agree with your supervisor on relevance of course to your individual PhD studies.
  2. Record the course, summer school, workshop, conference, etc. on your doctoral agreement in either the mandatory requirements or additional attainments table along with the suggested ECTS.
  3. Submit completed, fully signed and dated Doctoral Agreement to the GCB Coordinator info.gcb@unibe.ch for final approval, the review for which is (a) determination of appropriateness of the course and, (b) number of ECTS to be granted.

Approved coursework - all institutions

  1. Register for the course or examination directly with the organizer indicated on the course description. Indicate your study program (e.g. «PhD candidate of the GCB»), and your University matriculation number (this information should be included on the certificate of completion).
  2. Obtain a signed course certificate from the course lecturers when you attend an individual course (single participant) or an external course.
  3. Blank University of Bern certificate forms may be downloaded from this GCB Website page (below).

  4. All certificates require:

  • First name, Family name & Matriculation number
  • Official course title
  • Organizing institution
  • Name and title of lecturer(s)
  • Grade or pass
  • Date of exam or of completion of course
  • Number of ECTS

Submit Certificate of Completion

Upon course/workshop/seminar completion - submit the following by email to info.gcb@unibe.ch to obtain the ECTS credits and have those credits added to your planning in CTS/KSL:

  1. the original or a PDF* of your individual/external course certificate
  2.  a pdf of your signed doctoral agreement with the course listed**

*when the course is not listed on your DA, please submit course information (content, effort in terms of hours, exams, presentations, etc.) for (a) determination of course appropriateness and, (b) decision on number of ECTS to be awarded.
**Please note, photos (jpgs, tif, png, etc.) are not accepted: Submit only scanned, individual pdf formats. Students with smartphones, can use the scan feature in the Notes app. All smartphone user have access to a variety of free or low-cost scanning applications.

Hint:

All University of Bern courses must be administered via CTS/KSL. No University of Bern ECTS can be entered into the system from a course certificate. No exceptions. Therefore, you must confirm with course organizers in advance, particularly when registration is not via CTS/KSL, that the course results will be entered by the organizers. This is a University of Bern policy.

Download

GCB CTS/KSL Infosheet.pdf (PDF, 76KB)
GCB External Coursework ECTS (PDF, 74KB)