FAQ doctoral studies Dr. rer. nat.

• The basic requirement for starting your doctoral studies in Dr. rer. nat. is a previous degree in natural sciences. The specific admission requirements are set out in the Doctoral Degree Regulations.
• Doctoral positions are usually advertised and often combined with employment. You can find offers either on the "Schwarzes Brett" (notice board) in TiHo-Studis under "Dissertationsangebote" (dissertation offers), in the general job market (page German only) or on the relevant institute/clinic pages.
  • Alternatively, you can also approach the institutes/clinics in question with a topic idea and discuss whether a doctorate is possible.
• The duration of a doctorate in the Dr. rer. nat. program is usually 3 years and depends on your specific research area.

The Doctoral Degree Regulations stipulate which persons may supervise doctoral candidates during a doctorate.

The members of your supervisory group must be university professors, habilitated members of the TiHo or adjunct professors with habilitation-like achievements. In addition, at least one member of the supervisory group must be a natural scientist.

For your doctoral project, it is important that the supervisors are specialized in the subject area in which you would like to write your doctoral thesis. In addition to the professional match, the interpersonal level must of course also be taken into account, the importance of which should not be underestimated for a successful doctorate.

Once you have found a topic/project and a supervisory group, you prepare the dissertation announcement and submit it to the Promotionsbüro (Doctoral office) by the deadline (no later than January 15 or June 15 of each year) so that your announcement can be reviewed at the next committee meeting.

In your own interest, you should submit the dissertation announcement in good time, so that any missing documents can be submitted in time.

After the committee meeting, you will then receive written feedback on your dissertation announcement. If it is approved, you must enrol as a doctoral student at the TiHo in the next possible period. You can find the required documents and time periods at Enrollment and re-registration for doctoral studies.

In consultation with your supervisors, you can write either a monograph or a cumulative dissertation in either German or English.

Dissertation announcements can be submitted throughout the year. However, the announcements are collected and reviewed once per semester.

The latest dates for submission to the Doctoral office are January 15 and June 15 of each year.

In your own interest, you should submit your dissertation announcement in good time, so that any missing documents can be submitted in time.

Please submit the documents to the doctoral office by post or in person, not by e-mail.

After the committee meeting, you will then receive written feedback on your dissertation announcement.

If your dissertation announcement is approved, you must enroll as a doctoral student at the TiHo in the next possible period. You can find the required documents and deadlines under Enrollment and re-registration for doctoral studies.

You must submit all required documents for enrollment to the Promotionsbüro (Doctoral office), even if you have already submitted some of the documents elsewhere in the course of your employment.

Planned submission of the dissertation and re-registration

You must be a registered doctoral student in order to take all examinations in accordance with the Doctoral Degree Regulations. Whether you still have to re-register for the next semester depends on when you hand in your dissertation to the Doctoral office and when you will be taking your oral examination.

If in doubt, you should re-register. If you then take your oral examination in the current semester, you will be refunded the fees paid for the next semester.

You no longer need to be enrolled to submit your library copies.

• If the supervisory agreement is to be terminated and the doctorate not to be continued, a written notice of termination stating the reasons and the application for de-registrationis required. Please note that your dissertation announcement will also lose its validity.
• If the supervisory agreement is to be terminated, but the topic/dissertation is to be continued under a different supervisory group, please submit an application for a change of supervision to the Doctoral office, so it can be reviewed by the Commission.
  
  If your application is approved, please submit a new supervisory agreement upon request.

You can submit your documents (e.g. for enrollment, dissertation announcement, doctoral application) in person or by post.

If you wish to submit your documents in person, you should make an appointment with the doctoral office.

The Doctoral Degree Regulations contain a sample CV which can serve as a guide as to what information should be included. Of course, you can also submit a CV that you use for applications, for example.

Please make sure to include your address and other contact details in your CV.

Please also remember to date and sign your CV by hand.

Seminars and key qualifications can only be attended or taken after the dissertation announcement has been approved.

The individual program in accordance with Annex 6 PromO must be discussed with your supervisory group and approved by them. Adjustments and questions can be made during the annual consultation/supervision meetings/personal briefings.

During your doctoral studies, you must complete and provide evidence of a total of 72 seminar hours. You can acquire these through the Dr. rer. nat. seminars (including two presentations on your doctoral topic in English), institute seminars (including, for example, internal institute lab retreats and journal clubs), working group seminars and participation in (international) conferences.

Conferences (conference language English) at which you have given presentations can be credited to a certain extent for the seminar hours (please note: the presentations there do not replace the two presentations in English at the Dr. rer. nat. seminars!). In order for us to check if an  acknowledgement is possible, please submit an official certificate of attendance from the organizer (if possible with hours indicated) and the agenda to the Doctoral office. In addition, the signature of the colloquium leader is required on the certificate "seminar".

From 2024, the Dr. rer. nat. seminars will take place as a block seminar in presence (no hybrid!). Generally participation is only possible after approval of the dissertation announcement.

The dates for the block seminar will be announced in good time by e-mail and on the website. In addition, authorized doctoral students will receive further information by e-mail.

As part of the Dr. rer. nat. seminars, you must give two presentations in English on your doctoral project, presentations beyond this are voluntary.

Please note that participation in the Dr. rer. nat. seminars/block seminars is mandatory until you submit your dissertation, even if you have already completed your seminar hours.

For the block seminar, you can only be credited with as many hours as the number of presentations given (1 hour per presentation). The number of hours credited therefore depends on the number of presentations and may vary from year to year.

Participation in the respective Dr. rer. nat. seminar is always certified by the lecturers who conducted the seminar directly after the seminar on the certificate (if it was online as during Corona, the leading lecturers have a list of attendance from teams, so they should be able to confirm it afterwards if necessary).

Participation in the working group seminars is certified by the working group leaders/professors.

English

You must complete 30 hours for the key qualification English.

Exceptions:

• Stays abroad in an English-speaking country for at least 3 months with proof of study or language acquisition
• Native speakers

At TiHo, you can for example take the following courses:

• 3041 - Scientific English papers workshop I
• 3042 - Scientific English papers workshop II
• 3044 - English grammar

Biostatistics

For the key qualification Biostatistics you must complete 24 hours.

The following courses at TiHo are particularly recommended:

• 3053 - Planung & Auswertung tiermedizinischer Studien mit SAS-Studio
• 3053 - Planning & evaluation of veterinary studies with SAS
  • The course is primarily aimed at veterinarians, but is also open to Rer. nat. and PhD.
     
• Datenanalyse und Bioinformatik in R
• 1588 bzw. 3010/3012 - Data Analysis and Bioinformatics with R

  • Data Analysis and Bioinformatics with R are strongly bioinformatics-oriented (high-dimensional data, omics data, machine learning, sequencing).

The courses can be chosen according to the research focus.

Rhetorics

For the key qualification Rhetorics you must complete 24 hours.

Online courses cannot be taken as rhetoric courses as they are all about practising speaking and giving presentations in front of an audience, which also involves analysing your body language. It is therefore essential to only attend face-to-face courses and not online courses.

Courses on writing articles/academic writing and theoretical conception of lessons are certainly helpful and recommendable, but cannot be counted for the rhetoric lessons if speaking/presenting in front of the group is not practiced.

At TiHo you can for example take the following courses:

• 3007 - The scientific oral presentation and poster presentation
• 3008 - English lecture and presentation skills
• 3043 - Poster and presentations workshop
• 3045 - Job applications and interview techniques

Laboratory animal science - Animal welfare qualifications

Evidence of animal welfare/laboratory animal science qualifications may be required for your work. Please check with the animal welfare office as part of your dissertation application to see if you are required to take any such courses.

You are welcome to print or glue the passport photo on the CV. It does not have to be biometric.

You must submit an updated curriculum vitae, complemented by a list of any scientific publications, with your doctoral application. The Doctoral Degree Regulations contain a sample CV which can serve as a guide as to what information should be included. Of course, you can also submit a CV that you use for applications, for example.

Please make sure to include your address and other contact details in your CV.

Please also remember to date and sign your CV by hand.

Please leave the details of the second evaluator and the date of the oral examination blank for the reviewers' copies (see template page 2). Please complete this information for the library copies after the review and oral examination.

In § 10 of the Doctoral Degree Regulations you will find information on the design of the title page and a reference to Annexes 4a and 4b (the templates can be found under Downloads - Regulations and Forms).

On the library's webpage there is information on the formal requirements, but these are not binding for the reviewers' copies. However, it makes sense to follow the library's guidelines so that the dissertation does not have to be completely reformatted for printing the library copies.

Both reviewers' copies must be printed in DIN A4. Adhesive or glue binding and spiral binding etc. are ok, i.e. a proper binding. A folder is not sufficient.

The dissertation should be printed on one side. In the case of very extensive work, the work can also be printed on both sides.

If your second evaluator is based abroad, please also provide the Doctoral office with a digital copy of your dissertation.

For the reviewer's copies, the published or accepted articles must be included in full in the dissertation. If the publisher does not allow the article(s) to be printed, please include the article in the submitted format and add the bibliographic information (e.g. Last name, first name: Article title. In: Journal title, volume number (year), issue number, p. first page-final page, DOI).

This is slightly different for library copies; please check the library's webpage.

You can find a template of the affidavit under Downloads - Regulations and Forms in the documents for the doctoral application. Please ensure that you adapt the declaration accordingly (including the title of your dissertation) and sign it personally. The affidavit must be included in German, even if your dissertation is written in English.

The affidavit does not have to be handwritten, but the handwritten signature is important.

You must submit a total of 3 copies of the affidavit. You hand in one copy as a document with the doctoral application and one copy as the penultimate page of each reviewers' copy.

What is meant by help through third-party?

This does not mean your supervisors. They are there to advise and support you methodically and professionally in the preparation of your dissertation.

However, you should mention persons, institutions, institutes etc. who have made a contribution or were involved in some way, e.g. in large analyses or similar, i.e. services that were carried out for you to an extent that is scientifically justifiable and permissible under examination law.

Co-authorship/double authorship does not count as third-party assistance, as your own contribution must be highlighted. The shares must be stated in the doctoral thesis.

Please also ask your supervisor what else is meant by this so that you are on the safe side.

After submitting the doctoral application and receiving the report from the supervisory group, your dissertation will be forwarded to the second evaluator for review by the Doctoral office.

• Please note: The dissertation will only be forwarded to the second evaluator for assessment once the first evaluation report from the supervisory group has been received by the Promotionsbüro (Doctoral office). The first evaluation report should therefore either be brought in a sealed envelope when submitting the dissertation or sent directly to the Doctoral office by the supervisory group.

If your dissertation was assessed as at least “sufficient” in both reports, you will receive a formal invitation to the oral examination/disputation.

Once you have passed the disputation, you will prepare the library copies and submit them to the library by the specified deadline.

You will also receive an invitation to the graduation ceremony once you have passed the disputation.

After passing the oral examination, you must submit the relevant copies of your dissertation to the library by the deadline. Information on the requirements can be found on the library's webpage.

Please inform the Doctoral office by e-mail if your postal address changes after submitting your doctoral application so that we can send you the invitation to the oral examination, invitation to the graduation ceremony, etc.

Please also change your address in the system via TiHo-Studis.

Promovendi are presented with their doctoral certificates at the graduation ceremony. The graduation ceremony takes place twice a year:

• Summer graduation: in June
• Winter graduation: in December

The specific dates can be found in the schedule on the promotion homepage.

The procedure follows a strict protocol and can last 2 - 2.5 hours. Festive clothing is appreciated.

Initially, all promovendi will receive 3 tickets with the invitation to the graduation ceremony (1 ticket is for the graduate him/herself, 2 for accompanying persons).

Promovendi will receive further information with the invitation.

All promovendi will receive 3 tickets with the invitation to the graduation ceremony (1 ticket is for the graduate him/herself, 2 for accompanying persons).

Should you not be able to attend the event, please inform us and give back your tickets to the Doctoral office as soon as possible. We often receive requests from Promovendi who would like to bring additional companions and require extra tickets. These tickets can then be passed on to other promovendi interested.

If you need extra tickets, please send an email to the Doctoral office.

Unfortunately, we can only start distributing the extra tickets about 1 week before the graduation ceremony. Tickets will be allocated in the order in which they are requested.