Learning Agreement Process

You must complete an individual Learning Agreement (LA) for your Masters study in Biology. Students enrolled in a Bachelor program of UZH (Biology or Biomedicine) can complete the LA in their last Bachelor semester. Other students will do it in the first semester of their Masters. At the very latest before startiing the MSc thesis project, the LA must be completed and cleared by all involved.

The Learning Agreement is binding. Changes are only possible if all involved persons (student, supervisor, Master corrdinator and Studienkoordinaion) agree. The modules in the LA are compulsory and must be passed at the second attempt.

Throughout the process, you can always contact the Studienkoordination (studienkoordination@biol.uzh.ch) with any questions.

Students of BSc Biology at UZH enrol in the consecutive Masters program Biology until august 31 (or january 31, respectively). They apply for the Bachelor degree until march 14 (or october 14, respectively). All other students must apply at UZH first (see https://www.uzh.ch/cmsssl/en/studies/application/master.html). After eventual admission by UZH (which may take 2-3 months), contact studienkoordination@biol.uzh.ch immediately for further guidance.

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Check the list of supervisors of your concentration (https://www.biologie.uzh.ch/de/Studium/Masterstudium.html). Look at their webpages. Contact potential supervisors directly.

• If the supervisor is on the list, proceed directly to step 3.
• If the supervisor is not on the list, contact the Master coordinator to ask whether he/she is allowed to be official supervisor.
• If it is not clear to which concentration a project belongs, you must ask the Master coordinator and give a short project description.

An official supervisor must be a Professor or Privatdozierender at UZH who is significantly involved in teaching in Biology/Biomedicine. The official supervisor is responsible for the MSc project, evaluates the thesis and gives feedback, and is also present at the BIO 520 exam. Within a group, a PostDoc or PhD student can be the direct supervisor.

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• You choose course work together with the official supervisor, according to general rules of Mc Biology and the guidelines of the concentration. Also, discuss the general timeline and start/end dates of the MSc thesis project, as well as working times and holidays (usually 2-4 weeks).
• You enter the Learning Agreement provisionally in the StudentAdmin tool of MNF (http://studentadmin.mnf.uzh.ch), without submitting it. 

You must contact the MSc coordinator of the concentration and make a personal appointment. Together, you fix the details, the timeline and an interim meeting date. You are informed about concentration specific details, the final presentation and the exam of BIO 520.

Then, you finalise the LA in the StudentAdmin tool (http://studentadmin.mnf.uzh.ch) and submit it for confirmation.

The official supervisor gets an email and confirms the LA in the tool.
The MSc coordinator gets an email and clears the LA in the tool.
The Studienkoordination («Division») gets an email and clears the LA in the tool.

If anything is not ok or questions arise at one point, it is possible that they contact you by email -> you make changes and steps 5 and 6 are repeated.
If you see that someone does not take action within a week or two, you should contact the person directly to remind them to login at http://studentadmin.mnf.uzh.ch and check/clear the LA.

It is your responsibility to make sure that the LA is completely cleared (4 green checks) before your start your thesis project.

If you wish to replace a module, you should enter the change and point 6 is repeated. The Studienkoordination will check whether replacing the module is possible/feasable. 
If you wish to extend the duration of the thesis project, due to an illness or another unforeseen event, you must contact the Master coordinator and the Studienkoordination immediately and directly by Email.
The final title of the thesis will be entered when you apply for the degree. You don’t need to change the LA for this.