Changes of your doctorate at NAT

Sometimes, changes happen during the course of your doctoral project. We provide you here with some instructions on how to administrate these changes.

Changes in personal data

We use TUM-Online and DocGS to identify you and your achievements. Hence, until there is a direct data exchange between these two systems, we strongly advise you to update your data in TUM-Online and in DocGS.

Only if your data is up to date can we contact you. Therefore, please register all changes to your data in TUM-Online and in DocGS!

Such as

  • Name, citizenship, or other core data

  • Contact information (e-mail, phone number, postal address)

Change of regulations for the award of a doctoral degree

New Regulations for Doctoral Degrees at TUM

Effective October 2021, the New Regulations for the Award of Doctoral Degrees and the New TUM-GS Statutory Regulations apply to all doctoral candidates at TUM. However, specific paragraphs are excluded: § 29 (doctoral regulation) and § 19 (TUM-GS statutory regulations).

Advantages of the New Regulations

The main advantage of the new regulations is the grading, which includes the additional possibility of achieving magna cum laude. If you choose to switch to the new regulations, you must accept all changes, and this decision cannot be reversed.

Switching to the New Regulations

If you decide to switch to the new doctoral regulations, including the TUM-GS statutory regulations, you agree to waive the exemptions mentioned above. Your project will be subject to all new contract points, including retrospective changes. Therefore, please carefully consider whether this change is beneficial for you.

Feedback Discussion

It is often necessary to repeat the feedback discussion. We require confirmation that you and your supervisor have documented the feedback meeting, which can be based on a talk open to university members (or at an international conference) or a written interim report.

Important Notes

  • You must apply for the changes before submitting your thesis.

  • The TUM-GS checklist will help you make an informed decision.

  • TUM-GS provides detailed explanations of the differences and advantages.

To arrange the change, please apply in DocGS under “change doctoral criteria”.

Documents for your information

Change of your Graduate Center

If you wish to change your graduate center, please get in touch with both graduate centers to discuss the matter. Both graduate centers will discuss and agree on the possibility of a change.

If necessary, we will contact you for further clarification.

Change of mentor

If you wish to change your mentor, we have some helpful advice and suggestions in the Mentor section.

The process for changing mentors is straightforward, but it does involve a few simple steps:

  1. Fill in a new Supervision Agreement, sign it, and get it signed by the new mentor and your supervisor.

  2. Get it signed by one of the managers of the Graduate Center of Natural Sciences.

  3. We will email you a scan of the signed supervision agreement.

  4. You have to upload the PDF to DocGS: Please open DocGS and “request change of data regarding your doctoral project” in DocGS.

    • Click on “My progress” to open your entire progress tree. You will find the item “Request change of data regarding your doctoral project.“

    • Unfold everything here and click the “New entry” icon on the right.

    • A new page will open, and you can select and submit the desired request.

  1. We will approve your request in DocGS.

Change of supervisor

If all three parties are in agreement, a change in supervision can be a seamless and uncomplicated transition. However, in cases where the situation is more complex, we urge you to reach out to us to explore potential solutions.

It is important to obtain consent from both supervisors and the candidate before proceeding with the change.

A new Supervision Agreement would then be signed by the doctoral candidate and their new supervisor.

Finally, we would ensure that TUM-GS is notified of the change.