Application as a PhD student at NAT

Requirements

Admission to a doctorate at TUM requires a university degree completed with above-average results (Diploma, Magister, or Master’s), an equivalent state examination, or a Master’s examination at a university of applied science.

Results are considered above average if studies were completed with an average grade of at least 2.5 or passed with a “good.” For Foreign Degrees, the grades are “translated” to the German grading system for a fair comparison.

In exceptional cases, you may prove your above-average qualifications through academic work (e.g., publications) completed after your course of study.

Foreign Degrees

The TUM examination office reviews all degrees from foreign universities while processing your application to enter the doctoral candidacy list. You will get an authoritative answer as to whether your degree is recognized at the beginning of your PhD project. TUM no longer charges a fee for the review process.

We thank you for understanding that we can only answer questions on recognizing foreign degrees within the review process. You may check the Anabin database (in German) on the classification of foreign universities and degrees yourself.

To qualify as an equivalent degree, a master’s degree in science must include a master’s thesis. We evaluate individually if your master’s thesis is comparable to a German master’s thesis, e.g., equivalent to a master’s thesis at TUM.

Overview of the application process

Your application and acceptance as a doctoral candidate at the TUM School of Natural Sciences consists of the following steps:

Please finish the online registration and bring all the documents to the Dean’s office / doctoral studies:

You may also send us the required documents in one batch, but experience shows that the most efficient way is to do it in person.

Please note from the lists linked above that we require some paper documents. Hence, you cannot complete the registration by email.

Registration at the TUM Graduate School: Membership at the Graduate Center of Natural Sciences

The natural choice for Ph.D. students at NAT is to choose the Graduate Center of Natural Sciences as their graduate center.

DocGS is the central online registration portal for doctoral students at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). At this portal, you register as a doctoral candidate and then apply for entry into the list of PhD students.

After registration, you must join the TUM Graduate School and the TUM School of Natural Sciences. All required documents have to be submitted to our Dean’s office and will be reviewed before your application is finalized.

Supervision Agreement

Future members of the Graduate Center of Natural Sciences (GC-NAT) may download the supervision agreement files/betreuungsvereinbarung_GC-NAT-de.pdf, fill it in, get it signed, and hand it in at the Graduate Canter of Natural Sciences or the Dean’s office.

The signature of the GC-NAT can be obtained when you hand in the supervision agreement.

You only need to add the actual supervision agreement to your documents. You keep the project plan safe and continuously review and update it with your supervisor.

If you are considering becoming a member of another (topical) graduate center, please inquire about specific information there.

Please note that only the German supervision agreement is legally binding and accepted. The translated generic version is just for your convenience.

Please submit the signed supervision agreement (ink on paper) and other documents to the Dean’s office. The Dean’s office will obtain the signature of the Graduate Center NAT once we have the paper with the remaining signatures.

Note

For some fields like subject-specific courses, teaching at TUM, etc., it is expected that not all details are known at the start of your Ph.D. project. We recommend only filling in the available and agreed-upon information in these cases. Details can be added later, e.g., within your PhD project’s project plan (exposé).

Mentor

At the Graduate Center of Natural Sciences, we only accept supervision agreements where a mentor has been named and signed by the mentor.

We suggest picking someone preliminary if you are still determining a suitable mentor. You can select anyone with a Ph.D., e.g., someone from your current setting. Our only recommendation is that you choose a mentor who is not too close to your supervisor and thus can give you an independent view and advice. I.e., someone from outside the research group of your supervisor.

The mentor can change at any time.

TUM-GS has more information here: https://www.gs.tum.de/en/gs/supervisors/good-supervision/mentoring/

Entry onto the list of doctoral candidates

Your formal entry onto the list of doctoral candidates is also administered via DocGS. It is part of the registration process at the TUM School of Natural Sciences.

Please follow the steps outlined at the TUM-GS pages for either

Information on diploma and certificates / copies

TUM-ID and TUM E-Mail Address

If you still need a TUM account, please register at TUM and obtain a TUM-ID as described in section Membership at TUM: TUM-ID (TUM-Kennung).

Enter your TUM E-Mail address in DocGS. In contrast to others you may keep this (at least as a forwarding address) for the rest of your life.

„Direct Track“ from a Master’s program

Talented students can continue the Master’s research phase seamlessly with a doctoral project, speeding up their academic career. If you do not have a Master’s degree, you may choose this track on your way to a doctoral degree from the TUM School of Natural Sciences. The “Direct Track” program combines the advantages of the traditional model with the speed of a “Fast Track” – without the disadvantages like a (formally) missing Master’s degree.

Students interested in the “Direct Track” apply for a regular Master program. You may still use the advanced studies in the first year to become familiar with the research groups and find the perfect group for your science interests.