At the end of the year (2020 for a start of the Ph.D. programme in September 2021), we publish a list of fields in which future Ph.D. students will be able to work and the supervisors who will supervise the Ph.D. theses. This file is called "2021 PhD Positions Finance", which can be found here and under "Downloads" at the right side of this page (note that there is also a different list under downloads that is only relevant for applications in economics/econometrics with potential supervisors who may or may not have openings). Please refer to this list when you write the description of your research interests and explicitly state your two most preferred Ph.D. supervisors at the beginning of this description (all applicants may be considered by all potential supervisors at the School of Finance, but your preferences will be important for the matching to a supervisor).
After your application, we will try to match you with a supervisor for your Ph.D. studies. Only matched candidates will be admitted to the Ph.D. program.
Admitted candidates will start their coursework in September 2021. Admitted candidates will also be hired as research assistants at their supervisor's chair for the duration of the Ph.D. studies (unless you bring your own funding, for example via a national grant – in this case, please be sure to explicitly state this in your application). In some cases, applicants can start as research assistants already before September. The salary for research assistants may vary depending on the contract offered by the supervisors. In general, salaries at the University of St. Gallen are determined in accordance with the salary table (pdf, in German). As this table may be difficult to read, consider the following example: Someone who finishes her master's degree right before starting the Ph.D. and obtains a 50% research assistant position earns about 41500 CHF per year ("F4 - Assistierende mit Masterabschluss", 1st line, 3rd column, divided by two). If this person has a 70% research assistant position two years later, she receives about 60500 CHF ("F4 - Assistierende mit Masterabschluss", 3rd line, 3rd column, multiplied by 0.7). In addition, the Ph.D. Programme in Finance offers generous funding for conference attendance.
Review of Applications (Deadlines)
The first review of applications will take place after 15 February 2021. Please make sure to submit your application by this date for full consideration. Thereafter, applications will still be accepted for as long as there are unfilled positions.
Application Procedure
The first and main step of the application is to submit the documents via the university’s job portal here (except for the reference letters, which should be sent directly to pif@unisg.ch by the letter writers). No application fee needs to be paid at this point.
Successful applicants, who matched with a supervisor, still need to upload their documents at a later stage at the university's admission portal (please check which documents you will need to provide at that stage; at that point also the application/enrolment fee of 250 CHF needs to be paid).
Documents
The documents to be submitted (for the main application via the university’s job portal) are the following:
- Master's degree in finance, economics, or a related field with very good grades (current master students who will finish their degree before July 15 2021 may also apply; University of St. Gallen master students may apply if they will finish their degree before August 31 2021)
- Transcripts of records
- GRE/GMAT (not compulsory for students with a master's degree from the University of St. Gallen but still recommended; a pdf of the scores is enough)
- Description of research interests (explicitly referring to the list of proposed fields/topics and potential supervisors)
- CV
- Evidence of English language proficiency [can also be provided later]
- Two reference letters, sent directly by the letter writers to pif@unisg.ch