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PhD Thesis Submission

Procedure for Online Submission and Application for Admission to the Doctoral Examination

With submitting your PhD thesis, you need to apply for admission to the doctoral examination. The submission of your thesis and the Application for Admission to the Doctoral Examination can be made online in Lucom (via eCampus; no circulation of the "Green Folder" anymore). Please find below the application steps and all necessary information for submission of your thesis according to the (new) digital process.
Please find further information to the exam procedure in the Checklist - Countdown to doctoral degree, which we highly recommend to follow.

Important: Before you apply for the doctoral examination, please contact the Program/Dean's Office some month in advance
i) to communicate that you would like to submit your PhD thesis by a certain date,
ii) to check the proposed composition of your examination board (all members of the examination board must already hold an examination accreditation in GAUSS at the time when you apply for the doctoral examination. Therefore, if applicable, an application for individual examination accreditation (EPB, more information on examination accreditations can be found here) for a potential member of your examination board must have already been submitted to and approved by the GAUSS Board), and
iii) to approve your Checklist / Leistungsnachweis before online submission.

• The Lucom form is accessed via eCampus (login with your student ID and password) through this LINK.
  1. Please use the form Application for doctoral examination (Promotionsprüfungsantrag) for submission of the dissertation and application for admission to the doctoral examination.
     via eCampus: More\Forms\Promotionsformulare\Application for doctoral examination

• All relevant personal information will be transferred from eCampus to the application form.
If the transferred personel data in the form is not correct, please edit the data in eCampus (More\Self-Service\Contact data) and re-open the form.
• All required information and documents for the examination application are requested in the form (compare RerNat-O §9 (German , English translation)) and must be available at the time of application. Note, the data in the form cannot be saved temporarily.
  1. Final title of your dissertation (in case it differs to the previously registered one, which is saved in the GAUSS database)
  2. Indication of which doctoral degree (Ph.D. or Dr.rer.nat.) you wish to obtain
  3. Proposal of the six members of the examination board, including the two reviewers of your thesis, and their currently valid email addresses. You can also add a third reviewer if needed - this does not apply to the regulation on external expert opinions for the distinction summa cum laude according to §13 (6) RerNat-O.
  Important: the members of the examination board must already hold an examination accreditation in GAUSS at the time when you apply for the doctoral examination. Otherwise the form cannot be filled in and submitted! Hence, please plan the composition of your examination board well in advance and coordinate it with the first supervisor and the Program/Dean's Office. See the Checklist - Countdown to doctoral degree, RerNat-O §11 (German , English translation ), and here for further details on the composition of the examination committee.
  4. Time, date, and location of thesis defense.
  5. Upload of the following documents:
  1. One electronic version (PDF) of the dissertation (identical to the bound version; (title page, page 2 [has to include all members of the examination board and date of thesis defense] for exact format see RerNat-O Annex 2 - English or German). The digital version of your dissertation should be as small as possible. You can find information regarding the compression of pictures here).
  2. Copy/scan of the Promovierendenerklärung, which you have completed at start of your PhD.
  3. approved Checklist for all courses and TAC meetings with signatures (proof of performance / Leistungsnachweis), please have the document checked in advance for completeness by the respective Dean's/Program Office
  4. CV
  5. Optional:
     • copies of publications in connection with dissertation
     • application for restricted online publication (only in well-founded cases if applicable: see here for information on thesis publication and the restriction)
       Please note, it is not possible to apply for restricted online publication after your thesis defense.
     • consent to video-disputation, if applicable
     • other documents

• After submitting the application, you will receive an email with a PDF (to the email address registered in eCampus), in which all data of the application are listed and summarised in the Application for Admission to the Doctoral Examination. This document must be printed and signed in a legally binding manner, confirming that the digital and printed versions of the dissertation are identical. To meet the submission deadline (please note 5.) you should submit the signed application as soon as possible to the respective Dean's/Program Office including the following:
  1. Printed & bound hardcopy(s) of your dissertation (please ask for the number of copies required by your faculty at the relevant dean's office). Please check with your examination board who would like to receive a printed version of your dissertation - you are responsible for distributing them to the examination members.
  2. If not already submitted at the time of admission to the doctoral program: Originals or certified copies of university diplomas (M.Sc./Diplom), in English or German. If diploma is not available in English or German: translations by an accredited interpreter. If applicable: confirmation of equivalent degree (in case of foreign diplomas).

• Important, the examination procedure can only start once the respective Program/Dean's Office has received (at least (via email) the digital version of) the signed documents. Only the submission of the signed documents (signed Application for Admission to the Doctoral Examination) meets the deadline for submission, not the submission of the online form.

• From this step on, everything else proceeds via the Program/Dean's Office. The Office checks the form and content of the application and confirms by the signature of the dean or the program head on the application that the admission to the doctoral examination can be approved and that the examination committee indicated on the application can be appointed. After confirmation by the Program/Dean's Office, the signed and approved application is sent to GAUSS.

• The GAUSS Office finally checks all documents in Lucom in the function of the examination office. With the formal approval for admission to the examination, you will receive an email for admission to the doctoral examination. Furthermore, all members of the examination board will be notified by email regarding their appointment to the examination board including a link to the dissertation, and date, time and location of the disputation.

• All data are automatically transferred from Lucom to FlexNow and the GAUSS database, including the announcement of the date of disputation on the GAUSS website.