Faculty of Physics

Information for Doctoral Supervisor

As an supervisor for a doctoral dissertation, you should be aware of the following topics.

General Procedures and Rules

There is a brief description of the whole GAUSS process and rules available from the GAUSS web page. The special rules that apply to physics (PROPHYS) can be found in Appendix 7 of the doctoral degree regulations. Basically, in addition to completing and successfully defending her/his disseration work, your student must


  • attend advanced seminars or lectures for a total of 6 credits (3 C in the field of research, 3 C in a different field, where "different" is decided by the student's thesis committee);
  • presentation (talk/poster) of the research results at an national or international conference; and
  • submitted publication with substantial contributions by the student to an international refereed journal;
  • perform a total of 8 credits of teaching/tutoring.


Yearly Status Reports

The GAUSS regulations stipulate that each student give an oral report on his/her progress as part of an advanced seminar (NOT a simple working group meeting!). The first one should occur 6 months after the student has started. Make sure that you sign it in the Course assessment for Doctorates (Leistungsnachweis).

Teaching Credits

Ideally the 8 Credits contain


  • tutoring an excercise,
  • advise a lab experiment,
  • advise a Bachelor- or Masters Thesis.



summa cum laude

If your student deserves a summa cum laude, you must organize an external written referee report on the dissertation in advance and all of the members of the disputation committee (Prüfungskommission) must agree on this grade.

Permission to be an eligible member of the examination committee

If you are not on the examiner list -- yet are eligible (e.g. Habilitation or the equivalent) -- you can apply for permission no later than 6 months before the disputation. Please send the application form to the Dean office.
The short version is for members of the Georg-August University Göttingen. Members from other Universities or from local non-university research institutions are asked to fill the general form. It is also possible to apply for a single examination permission with the corresponding form.