Doctorates and Habilitations at Faculty VI
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If you are aiming for a doctorate or habilitation, the faculty is an important point of contact, as we are responsible for the procedures and the awarding of the academic degrees.
In the following we would like to inform you in particular about all formal questions relating to the doctorate - from the initial orientation, the declaration of intent to pursue a doctorate, the doctorate procedure to the publication of your dissertation.
In addition, you find below the contact details of the ombudsperson for doctoral candidates of the faculty who you can contact in case of problems or conflicts.
If you are aiming for a habilitation, please contact the Faculty Service Center directly, we will be happy to advise you.
To help ensure that your doctorate proposal is processed quickly, we kindly ask you to observe the following steps and information.
The required forms can be found in the relevant chapters or under "Downloads".
1. General orientation
How can I do a doctorate at Faculty VI?
Please inform yourself first about the different ways to do a doctorate. Faculty VI does not offer any general, structured doctoral programs. It is therefore important to find a supervisor for your doctoral project on your own, according to your planned topic (see the list of all institutes of Faculty VI as well as chapter 2 below). In addition, please clarify the question of funding before starting a doctorate.
In addition, the TU Center for Junior Scholars has published a very helpful information brochure for international doctoral students which gives a good overview of the first steps towards a doctorate.
On which basis can I do a doctorate at Faculty VI?
The basis for completing a doctorate at Faculty VI are the joint doctoral regulations of TU Berlin including their first amendment and the implementing regulations of Faculty VI.
Familiarity with the details of the doctoral regulations and the implementing regulations of Faculty VI is assumed in the case of requests for advice!
At Faculty VI Planning Building Environment you can pursue one of the four types of doctoral degrees:
- Doctor of Engineering Sciences (Dr.-Ing.),
- Doctor of Natural Sciences (Dr. rer. nat.),
- Doctor of Philosophy (Dr. phil.) or
- Doctor of Economic Sciences (Dr. rer. oec.).
The doctoral degree awarded is determined in § 2 of the Doctoral Regulations:
“The focus of the dissertation depends on the doctoral degree: for Dr.-Ing., the focus is on an engineering science, for Dr. rer. nat., it is on a mathematical or natural science, for Dr. phil., the humanities or the social sciences, and for Dr. rer. oec., economics or business administration.”
2. Declaration of intent to pursue a doctorate
You can notify us of your intent to pursue a doctorate by filling in the relevant form (English or German version). The additional documents you need to submit are:
- Description of the topic (exposé)
- Work and time schedule
- Signed CV
- Certified copy of your university degree qualifying you for a doctorate
- Confirmation of supervision (sample)
- Statistical Data Entry Sheet.
Supervision can be provided by one of the following persons who must be a member of Faculty VI of TU Berlin:
- Full-time professor
- university lecturer
- junior professor
- post-doctoral research group leader
- permanently employed full-time non-scheduled professor.
In addition to the confirmation of supervision, you should conclude a doctoral agreement with the supervisor. However, the Faculty Service Centre (FSC) does not require this document for registration.
Please send your declaration of intent to pursue a doctorate digitally to promotionen@fak6.tu-berlin.de first and make sure that a data volume of 2-3 MB is not exceeded. Please send the original by post to the Faculty Administration (see contact details further below).
You will then receive a confirmation from the Dean or the Faculty Administration. Only with this confirmation you can enrol at TU Berlin as the next step.
Please note: Doctoral candidates who are not employed at TU Berlin are obliged to enrol! Employed doctoral candidates have the choice. Enrolment does not take place via the Faculty Administration but via the Office of Student Affairs of TU Berlin.
3. Application for admission to the doctoral procedure
Once you have completed your doctoral thesis, you can apply to be admitted to the doctoral procedure. You can download and fill out a German version of the relevant form or an English version.
Your application should include your preferred reviewers. You can also nominate who you would like to be chair of the doctoral committee. Please refer to the requirements stated in the doctoral regulations and in the implementing regulations of Faculty VI regarding this.
We recommend you to submit your application in advance as a scan to promotionen@fak6.tu-berlin.de (including title page and information on co-authorships). Please note that you should not submit your actual thesis in an email!
You should also submit the following documents to the Faculty Administration:
- A printed copy of your completed dissertation. Please note the specifications for the layout of the title page (which are different from those of the title page for the later publication!).
The number of copies you are required to submit depends on the number of reviewers you wish to have. You are also required to submit two additional copies for the chair of the doctoral committee and the Faculty Service Center. - One copy of your dissertation in PDF format submitted on a digitally readable medium. Upon request, you will be granted access to an area of the TUB cloud. The FSC does not access the clouds of commercial or other third party providers (WE-transfer, Dropbox etc.).
- (Updated!) and signed CV
- Publication list
- Additional documents if you are submitting a cumulative dissertation (see form and the implementing regulations of Faculty VI).
- An application for inspection of the assessments before the scientific debate and confidentiality agreement, if applicable (see also chapter 4 below).
4. Scientific defense
After the doctoral procedure has been opened by the dean and the reviews have been received by the faculty administration, the scientific defense follows.
The scientific defense is divided into two parts:
- Presentation by the doctoral candidate about the dissertation (approx. 30 minutes)
- Discussion with the reviewers about the subject discipline of the dissertation (approx. 60 minutes).
The academic defense is open to the university public and takes place in the presence of the doctoral candidate and all members of the doctoral committee.
According to § 8 (2) of the doctoral regulations, in particularly justified individual cases or in the absence of individual or all participants due to force majeure, it is possible to hold the academic defense in partial presence or as a purely virtual defense. In this regard, please also note the instructions of the Faculty Service Center (in German).
The chair of the doctoral committee is responsible for scheduling the scientific defense (date, time and place). This should be made with the Faculty Service Center as early as possible, but at least three weeks before the planned scientific defense.
NEW: According to § 8 (1) of the doctoral regulations, doctoral candidates of Faculty VI are allowed to inspect the assessments before the scientific debate, provided that the supervisor belongs to one of the institutes of Faculty VI (first membership), as specified in the implementation regulations of Faculty VI. For this purpose, an application for inspection and a confidentiality agreement can be submitted.
5. Publication
After you have completed your scientific defense, you are required to publish your dissertation within twelve months (extension only in exceptional cases).
Therefore, you are required to hand in the following mandatory copies of your dissertation approved by the doctoral committee (including the changes decreed by the doctoral committee) to the Dissertation Office of the University Library of TU Berlin:
- online publication in DepositOnce (checklist)
- 15 printed copies as standard dissertation copies (checklist)
- 3 publication copies (checklist, for possible changes by the publishing house, please see the implementing regulations of Faculty VI, too)
In case of a thesis by publication (cumulative dissertation), please consider additional information.
You will receive a confirmation of receipt (confirmation of publication) from the Dissertation Office, a copy will be sent to the Faculty Administration.
If there is any change between the submitted and the approved version of your dissertation, a print copy of the published version must be submitted to the Faculty Service Center.
Once you have fulfilled these requirements, you will be issued your doctoral certificate (in person or by post to your current address).
For your further academic career please note the following paragraphs of the Berlin University Act (in German):
BerlHG, § 101 (5): "Bei Berufungen auf eine Professur sollen Juniorprofessoren und Juniorprofessorinnen, wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiter und wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterinnen in der Funktion einer Nachwuchsgruppenleitung sowie Hochschuldozenten und Hochschuldozentinnen der eigenen Hochschule nur dann berücksichtigt werden, wenn sie nach ihrer Promotion die Hochschule gewechselt hatten oder mindestens zwei Jahre außerhalb der berufenden Hochschule wissenschaftlich oder künstlerisch tätig waren (...)."
Downloads
Ombudsperson for Doctoral Candidates
Doctoral candidates who need advice with problems or conflicts can contact the ombudsperson for doctoral candidates ("Vertrauensperson für Promovierende") of faculty VI. All requests are treated confidentially and any further action is only taken in agreement with the candidate.
Please note: the ombudsperson is not responsible for formal or administrative questions. Such issues are dealt with by the Faculty Service Center (see above).