MrWhereItsAt - one thing that happends at ETH (don't know if they are as troublesome in Lausanne) is that you can't get officially paid as a post-doc until you get your PhD - the actual paper confirmation of your degree, until then they put you as a 'research scientist' or such and fiddle with the money to make it legal, but might end up getting less salary until you get them the paper.

When I got here they wouldn't let me be a PhD student yet since I didn't have my actual diploma, like the one with the stamp and all - as in the one they hand to you at graduation, normally about 9-12 months after you actually finish! My letter from my old school that said "MSc conferred *pending aproval of the university senate*" wasn't exactly comforting to them either...Try telling them thats a formality...Argggg...

Andrew