Membership and roles during your doctorate

As a doctoral candidate at NAT, you may hold several types of membership and roles. Some relate directly to your Ph.D project, while others are only loosly connected.

Memberships related to your doctoral project

TUM School of Natural Sciences

Your degree-awarding institution. This is where you complete your doctoral examination and receive your doctoral degree. Related to the research topics of the NAT School, the subject of your PhD project could be in the fields of physics, chemistry or chemical engineering.

Your doctoral advisor (Doktormutter or Doktorvater in German) must be a university lecturer at the TUM School of Natural Sciences (NAT).

After completing your application you will be officially registered on the list of doctoral candidates at the TUM School of Natural Sciences, confirming your academic affiliation.

The Dean’s office of NAT manages your application as a doctoral candidate and the acceptance procedure after submission of your doctoral thesis.

Graduate Center of Natural Sciences or another TUM Graduate Center

Responsible for the qualification program and supporting your academic development.

You become a member of a Graduate Center and the TUM Graduate School. This includes:

Participation in the Qualification program during your doctorate (Qualifizierungsprogramm)
Receiving Subject-related training
Access to Funding for international research stays and conferences
Access to transferable skills courses and networking opportunities

TUM Graduate School

The central TUM body that provides the overarching structure for all doctoral programs.

You become a member of the TUM Graduate School together with your membership at a Graduate Center.

The TUM Graduate School (TUM-GS) offers both a Website and a Wiki with more information about doctoral matters at TUM.

Technical University of Munich (TUM)

Membership at TUM: a TUM ID and TUM email address are required for all doctoral candidates at NAT.

TUM ID (TUM-Kennung)

If you do not yet have a TUM account, please register at TUM and obtain a TUM ID as described in section TUM ID and TUM email address.

It is essential that we are always able to reach you through your TUM email.

Optional enrollment as a doctoral student at TUM (Einschreibung ins Promotionsstudium)

In addition to being registered as a doctoral candidate, you may choose to enroll as a doctoral student at TUM. Enrollment (immatriculation) gives you official student status and access to student services.

All doctoral candidates must be entered on the doctoral candidacy list. Enrollment is optional.

Enrolled doctoral students are required to pay the applicable semester fee.

In most cases, you must first be accepted onto the doctoral candidacy list before you can enroll as a doctoral student at TUM.

Important

Enrollment is not administered by the Graduate Center, the TUM School of Natural Sciences, or TUM Graduate School.

Enrollment is administered by the TUM Center for Study and Teaching (TUM CST) – Admissions and Enrollment.

Further information is available on:

the TUM website on fees and contributions
the TUM Enrollment FAQ
the TUM Graduate School Wiki, which provides additional guidance on the enrollment process

You may also disenroll, for example if:

you have completed the examination
you have reached the maximum enrollment period of eight semesters
you decide to discontinue or conclude your doctoral project

Important

If your enrollment ends, your chair or the Dean’s Office must ensure that your TUM account remains active for the remainder of your doctoral project.

Confirmation of doctoral candidate status (Bestätigung)

If you need a confirmation of your status as a PhD student or as a member of the Graduate School, please have a look at section Confirmation of doctoral candidate status (Promotionsbestätigung).

Other roles and affiliations

These aspects can be part of your doctoral journey but do not define your Ph.D. project at TUM:

Employment contract or other funding arrangements
Membership in external institutions, external graduate programs, or professional societies (e.g., DPG, GDCh)

Funding your doctoral project

Depending on the funding of your PhD project and the location of your workplace, you are either an internal or an external Ph.D. student.

Work contract at TUM: you are a member of the scientific staff at TUM and an internal Ph.D. student.
Stipend or other funding with the workplace at TUM: You are a member of TUM and an internal Ph.D. student.
Contract with an external institution or company and no workplace at TUM: you are an external Ph.D. student and an external scientist at TUM.

As an external Ph.D. student:
- You still conduct your academic research at TUM.
- You retain access to TUM resources (e.g., IT services and other research-related infrastructure).
- You typically have fewer obligations than internal Ph.D. students.

External institutions and external Graduate Centers

External organizations, including external Graduate Centers like IMPRS, are not responsible for your TUM doctoral project.

Your academic home remains TUM.

Requirements from external institutions may apply to your work contract or other Funding your doctoral project. but they do not affect the formal conditions of your TUM Ph.D. project.

Membership in external institutions or professional societies like DPG or GdCh, Freunde und Förderer der Physik an der TUM e.V. and the like has no formal relation with your academic Ph.D. project.