PhD

The official information about the enrollment process, the admission for handing in your work, as well as the current PhD regulations can be found here. Unfortunately, the English version of the site is not as comprehensive as the German one; therefore, we try to provide all relevant information below.

Enrollment

PhD students at the UDE have to be enrolled. To start the procedure you can contact Mrs. Knoblich and make an appointment for enrolment. She will tell you which documents you need and how to proceed. The documents are usually:

• A CV with your current adress, date of birth, birthplace and nationality.
• Your school and university graduation certificates (originals, no copies; for germans these are Abiturzeugnis, Bachelorzeugnis, Bachelorurkunde, Masterzeugnis, Masterurkunde). This might be different for internationals.
• A decleration according to the Promotionsordnung. Here, you can find a template; just change everything in red to the correct information. The things you declare in the enumerations are that
  1. you did not try to get a PhD prior to the one you are now applying to
  2. the preliminary topic is ...
  3. you want a certain kind of PhD (ask us if you are not sure)
  4. you did not pay any money or had any shady dealings that got you the opportunity to write your dissertation (very rough summary, it is kind of complicated legal speech; again, if you are unsure, ask us)
• A decleration from your supervisor (Ask Rolf for this one)

After that you will receive a letter of acceptance from the doctoral committee, which you will for your enrolment application (in english or german). Please note the required documents on the last page of the application PDF. You will also receive the Betreuungsvereinbahrung, which needs to be signed and returned to the Dekanat.

If everything worked out, you should receive a notification and your student card. To complete the enrolment you will have to pay the semester fee of around 350.00 € (this includes the actual semester fee and the semester ticket, which allows you to use all regional trains in NRW).

Handing in your thesis

The following information is given under the assumption that you are writing a cumulative dissertation under the Promotionsordnung's version from 2024. If you enrolled as a PhD student under a previous Promotionsordnung, you can change to the one from 2024 (the first to allow cumulative dissertations). The necessary document (s. documents below) is given to Ms. Knoblich when you hand in your thesis.

You need to make some declarations when you want to hand in your thesis. You can find a document template here. Ignore the second letter if you are already enrolled in the 2024 Promotionsordnung.

You'll notice that the third letter is talking about some Leistungspunkte (LP). You need to get at least 18 to be able to finish your PhD, and you get them for various things; for example, 2 LP per SWS of teaching, 3 per published paper, and 2 for a contribution to a conference or something similar. You have to list them in that table, and your supervisor needs to sign that letter in addition to you.

Somewhere in your thesis, you have to state which parts you specifically contributed to the published papers. When handing in your thesis, you also need a letter from your supervisor that confirms this statement.

In addition to all that, you will have to hand in your current CV together with your thesis. This CV must include your matriculation number.

Q&A

How many papers do I need?

The Promotionsordnung calls for papers (plural), and at least one of them has to be a first-author paper.

Do the papers have to be included in the thesis?

Yes.

Do I have the permission to re-publish my papers?

This depends on how you published them. Papers under a CC-BY 4.0 licence are not a problem, but you need to check with the publisher if you are unsure. Beware that you have to state within your thesis that you have the rights to re-publish the papers!

Do I have to include all papers?

No; specifically, only those that you want to be examined for.

Do the papers have to be handed in separately in printed form?

No.

What about not included papers?

Them neither.

Is a separate summary of my thesis necessary?

No. If you have one within your thesis, then it is sufficient.

What should be the content of the 25 pages of introduction and discussion that the Promotionsordnung calls for?

The interpretation of that is left to you and your supervisor.

Useful links

• In the Graduate Center Plus you can find offers for PhD students as counselling, workshops, career information, information on financial help and an FAQ about starting at the UDE: https://www.uni-due.de/gcplus/en/doc_index.php