Acceptance of the dissertation¶
Completing your PhD: Overview of the doctoral process¶
Note
Please have a look at our leaflet
(PDF),
which includes an overview on the timeframes on submission, acceptance and examination:
The Dean’s Office NAT organizes and coordinates the evaluation of the dissertation and the oral examination, after we receive the submitted documents from the examination office in Munich.
The required steps are summarized here:
We ask your supervisor for suggestions for the examination committee.
We forward this suggestion to the Dean.
The Dean will decide and confirm whether the NAT School will conduct the examination procedure and determine the degree to be awarded (Dr. rer. nat. or Dr.-Ing.).
The Dean will appoint the examination committee.
We make the dissertation available to the examination committee and request expert opinions from the examiners.
After receiving all positive evaluations from the examiners, the Dean’s Office initiates the acceptance procedure.
The respective acceptance committee decides on the acceptance of the dissertation by circulation.
Once the acceptance committee has accepted the dissertation, the candidate and the examination committee agree on an examination date, which the Dean’s Office will announce at least 7 days in advance.
The oral examination takes place.
Appointment of the examination committee and assessment process¶
The Dean’s Office formally requests that the dissertation supervisor - who generally serves as the primary examiner - propose candidates for membership on the examination committee. The chair of the committee and at least one reviewer must be employed as professors within the NAT School.
To ensure good scientific practice, the second reviewer - and any additional reviewers - must prepare their evaluations independently. These reviewers should maintain appropriate professional distance from both the supervisor and the doctoral candidate to guarantee objectivity, while still having sufficient expertise in the dissertation’s subject area.
To support these standards, the School Council of the TUM School of Natural Sciences
has adopted the following guidelines and regulations for appointing examination committees (German PDF):
The Dean is responsible for deciding whether the NAT School will oversee the examination procedure and for determining the specific doctoral degree to be awarded (Dr. rer. nat. / Dr.-Ing.). The Dean reviews the proposed committee members and appoints the examination committee in accordance with principles of good scientific practice.
Once the committee has been appointed, the Dean’s Office will inform all committee members and the candidate. Each committee member will receive a digital copy of the dissertation, and the Dean’s Office will request written evaluations from the designated reviewers.
Acceptance of the dissertation through the Umlauf-Verfahren¶
Once all designated reviewers have completed their assessment of the doctoral thesis and evaluated it as “passed” or better, the Dean’s Office forwards the dissertation - together with the corresponding expert reports - to the responsible acceptance committee of the TUM School of Natural Sciences.
Both the doctoral candidate and the committee members will be notified by email when the acceptance procedure begins and when it has been completed.
Currently, there are four established acceptance committees:
Important
Information regarding the Rundlaufverfahren / acceptance committee Physics
In the physics department / acceptance committee physics, it is customary to carry out the acceptance circulation process for the dissertation (Rundlaufverfahren) in person.
No appointments are scheduled in advance; instead, you simply knock politely on the professors’ doors.
Please do not contact professors or secretaries by email or telephone!
If someone is not available or currently in a meeting, please try again later.
It usually takes one to two days to find and convince a sufficient number of professors.
Before starting, prepare a brief introduction of your dissertation and make sure to bring all relevant documents (especially your doctoral thesis).
The professors serving on these committees are required to submit their evaluations, indicating either “accept” or “reject,” within a timeframe of seven days.
In instances of a rejection, it is mandatory to provide specific justifications. Conversely, if the thesis is accepted, an optional comment may be included. These evaluations, along with their respective justifications and comments, will be communicated to the School Executive Board or the examination committee, while maintaining the confidentiality of the identities of the voters and the authors of remarks.
The dissertation will be deemed accepted only if all of the following conditions are met:
The seven-day period has concluded.
A sufficient number of “accept” votes are received.
No votes indicate rejection.
For committees comprising 20 to 39 members, a minimum of fifteen affirmative votes is required for acceptance. For committees with 40 or more members, a threshold of twenty positive votes is necessary.
During the Umlauf-Verfahren (circulation procedure), it is the responsibility of the candidate to proactively solicit the necessary “accept” statements.
Once the Umlauf-Verfahren commences, candidates will receive an email notification and can subsequently monitor the status of the procedure through the DSSNAT platform. Please note that while the number of votes will be visible, the identities of the voters will remain confidential.