Frequently Asked Questions

Creating an account and joining the Studyond network is free. Individual industry experts can publish thesis topics or support students as interview partners at no cost. Enterprise customers receive advanced features, visibility, and controls; pricing is available on our pricing page.

Yes. Companies can limit the visibility of thesis topics and internships to selected universities and degree programs to ensure relevance and strategic focus.

Yes. Experts can join Studyond without publishing their own topics. This allows you to explore the ecosystem, observe student interest, and prepare internally before launching projects.

An AI-based matching algorithm considers profiles, interests, and skills.

Yes. Custom single sign-on integration is available to enterprise customers on request. Your teams can access Studyond using the company’s existing authentication systems, ensuring security and compliance with minimal IT effort.

Job boards deliver volume. Studyond delivers signal: structured student profiles with academic context, AI matching by degree program and skills, and optionally a four- to six-month work sample through a thesis collaboration. Research shows that work samples are the strongest predictor of later job performance.

No. Studyond runs in the browser and can be ready in five minutes. Connect it to your ATS through a link integration or use it independently. No IT integration is required.

Thesis students conduct exploration, not implementation. They bring academic methods (literature reviews, structured data collection, and documented analyses) and are supervised by experienced researchers. Your role is to provide the research question and domain context.

The time required depends on the project and your agreed role. Academic supervisors handle methodology, scheduling, and quality assurance; you provide the research question, context, and subject-matter expertise. The scope and check-ins are agreed together before the project starts.

Market exploration, technology validation, competitive analysis, business-model testing, and process optimization. The key is choosing projects that need structured investigation rather than rapid implementation. If you need a report in two weeks, hire a consultancy. If you need sound evidence for a strategic decision, a thesis project is the better investment.

Studyond is a quality-assured platform that connects students, universities, and companies for guest lectures, applied projects, theses, internships, interview partners, entry-level positions, and many other use cases.

The Studyond platform grew out of an Innosuisse research project initiated by ETH Zurich, the University of St. Gallen (HSG), and Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences (OST). The Swiss Employers' Association and economiesuisse took part as implementation partners. Today, Studyond is an official HSG Spin-Off and ETH Startup. In 2026, it was accepted into the MITdesignX Startup Accelerator Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The entire Studyond platform is developed and operated in Switzerland. All development work is carried out by teams in Switzerland; no development is outsourced abroad. This enables us to maintain the highest standards of data protection, security, and software quality.

Yes. studyond complies with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Swiss Data Protection Act (DPA). Personal data is processed transparently and in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

All data is stored in AWS data centers located in Frankfurt, Germany, ensuring data residency within the European Union.

We use industry-standard security, including encryption and secure communication protocols. The database is isolated in a private cloud network.

Yes. Users may delete their account and personal data at any time via their profile settings or by contacting privacy@studyond.com. Deletion requests are handled in line with legal and regulatory obligations.

Authentication is provided by Clerk, an enterprise-grade identity provider. Secure tokens manage authenticated communication between platform services.

If a data breach occurs, Studyond will notify affected users and relevant authorities within 72 hours, in accordance with applicable regulations.

Studyond is currently web-based. The platform's architecture is designed to support future mobile applications if required in the future.

Updates are deployed continuously to the cloud, typically without service interruption, ensuring users always have access to the latest features and improvements.

Yes. Studyond is cloud-native and uses automated scaling mechanisms to adjust system resources based on usage and demand.

Cloud-native backup and recovery solutions are used to regularly back up data and support restoration in the event of a system failure.

Yes. Studyond uses AI-supported systems to improve matching between students, supervisors, and companies, for example by recommending relevant topics, profiles, or collaborations based on interests, skills, and context.

AI on Studyond is decision-supporting, not decision-making. Final decisions, such as selecting a student, approving a topic, or initiating a collaboration, are always made by humans.

No. AI does not automatically accept, reject, or rank individuals in a binding way. It provides recommendations and structured suggestions to support users in navigating large volumes of information.

Studyond is committed to transparency. AI-supported recommendations are based on clearly defined inputs such as profile data, stated interests, and skills. Users remain in control and can always review, ignore, or override AI suggestions.

No personal data is used to train general-purpose AI models. Where AI components rely on learning mechanisms, they are restricted to platform-internal optimization and operate on anonymized or aggregated data where possible.

Studyond is designed to align with the principles of the EU AI Act and Swiss regulatory frameworks. The platform's AI features are classified as low-risk, support-oriented systems and follow core principles such as human oversight, transparency, data minimization, and non-discrimination.

Studyond actively monitors AI-supported features for unintended bias. Matching logic is based on academic relevance, skills, and declared interests, not on sensitive personal attributes. AI outputs are regularly reviewed and adjusted where needed.

Yes. Where AI-supported recommendations are offered, users can choose not to rely on them and instead browse or search manually using filters and structured listings.

AI governance is handled internally by Studyond AG. All AI-related features are reviewed from a legal, ethical, and technical perspective before deployment, with a strong emphasis on responsibility, accountability, and user trust.