Academic Careers

The academic career path at the University of Fribourg comprises four steps:

  1. Doctoral
  2. Postdoctoral
  3. Associate Professor
  4. Full Professor

More information on career opportunities for young academics:

The PhD

  1. Beginning a PhD thesis is considered the first (necessary) step to start your academic career.
  2. During the PhD you should gradually evolve from “student” towards “independent researcher”. Please take into account that the thesis duration varies from faculty to faculty. It is worth to learn about the Best Practices of your research domain.
  3. Towards the end of the PhD period the PhD candidate has to write his thesis, to defend it, and will be, eventually, awarded by the title of PhD.

For more information:

Postdoc

After obtaining your PhD to pursue the academic career, a post-doctoral fellowship (PostDoc) can be starte. The duration of a PostDoc is not well defined and can drastically differ between the faculties.

During the PostDoc you should collect the experiences necessary to start your own research activity. A Postdoc can profit from the support of many different funding instruments that can initially be used to cover his/her salary and gradually will allow him/her to pay for collaborators, equipment, etc. essentially for his/her research activity.

  1. A Postdoc has to fix his/her objectives from the very beginning, and to carefully negotiate his/her working conditions. Beginning
  2. 2-5 years after the end of the PhD thesis, a Postdoc should typically have reached the qualifications to access the funding instruments allowing him/her to start his/her own activity. Some funding instruments could provide the status of Research Associate (or Senior Assistant or Junior Group Leader), which is nice to have but not formally required to pursue an academic career. Middle
  3. 4-9 years after the end of the PhD thesis, a researcher should have a record (concerning both his/her research activity and teaching activity) ready to apply for Professorship grants, e. g., grants financing a temporary position of Associate Professor. End

For more information: