Doctoral Procedure start 1.10.2019

Application documents

An admission application must be submitted BEFORE work is started on the proposed doctoral dissertation.

The following application documents must be prepared in electronic form for the online application for admission to doctoral procedures and submitted compulsorily as part of the online application:

• Copies of your degree certificates (e.g. bachelor’s and master’s degree): certificate of academic degree, transcript of records, diploma supplement (if issued and already available)¹

¹If your degree certificates are issued in another language than German or English, please submit a certified translation (in German or English) of your degree certificates.

• Completed and fully signed supervision agreement: Please use this form#herel# only.
• Copy of certificate of higher education entrance eligibility (secondary school leaving certificate: dt. Abitur/Reifezeugnis)
• Completed and fully research project outline: Please use this form only.
• Copy of identification document (e.g. ID card, passport, visa)
• Curriculum vitae and if available, publication list
• Only if applicable: Statement attesting that you have previously applied for a doctorate at another higher education institution, in another faculty of the University of Hamburg or in another department of the MIN Faculty of the University of Hamburg (including details on the application).
• Only for candidates with a degree from a country outside the European Union:
  • certificates of the academic degrees including a transcript of records, diploma supplement, master thesis and this completed form
  • or
  • certificate of equivalence from the Central Office for Foreign Education (issued by the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany)

 Online Application

1.        Register in Docata-MIN: Create user account and set password

2.       Log in to Docata-MIN with the login data of the user account and fill in the online application for admission to doctoral procedures.

3.       Complete the first section of the online application and download the PDF application file Application for admission to doctoral procedures: tick the applicable declarations in the PDF application file and sign the Application for admission to doctoral procedures by yourself and having it signed by the other persons/entities listed in the application².

 Section 2

Log in to Docata-MIN and complete the second section of the online application: upload the fully signed Application for admission to doctoral procedures and the remaining application documents (see above) in ONE PDF file (max. size 30 MB) to Docata-MIN and submit via Docata-MIN.

In the FAQ for the online application for admission to doctoral procedures linked here, you will find all information about the application process with screenshots for all sections. Please make sure to read them before you start the online application process.

The Biology Doctoral Committee will decide about the admission at their meetings at the end of each month (except August and December). All documents have to be in the Academic Office one week (the 22^nd of each month exept August and December) before  meeting.

If relevant: Please plan for a longer processing time for an equivalence check of e.g. higher education degrees from abroad.

 Upon acceptance by the Doctoral Committee, you must enrol with your acceptance letter by the end of the semester following your admission (enrolment instructions, PDF). You must remain enroled at the University of Hamburg until your disputation.

Information about supervisors (PDF)

Information for prospective and new international doctoral candidates- A Practical Guide for prospective and new doctoral Researchers

At Universität Hamburg doctoral students must be enrolled for the duration of their doctoral studies in accordance with the Hamburg Higher Education Act (Hamburgisches Hochschulgesetz, HmbHG) (Section 70 subsection 5) and the MIN Doctoral Degree Regulations.

If the Physics Subject Doctoral Committee accepts your admission application, use your acceptance letter to enroll. Please do this by the end of the semester following the beginning of your doctoral studies.

More information on enrollment.

Who can apply for supervision and examination rights

University lecturers and habilitated members of other departments or external institutions and PhDs may, upon application, be granted the "Supervision and Examination Rights for doctoral projects in the Department of Biology at UHH" for certain doctoral projects.

Doctoral candidates should submit the applications for supervision and examination rights together with the "Application for admission to doctoral procedures in the Department of Biology" or with the "Aplication to open doctorate proceedings in the Department of Biology".

Note: The documents for the application for the right to supervise and examine do not have to be resubmitted for subsequent applications after the first granting of the right to supervise and examine. In these cases, the proposal of the doctoral candidate in the "Application for admission to doctoral procedures in the Department of Biology" or "Aplication to open doctorate proceedings in the Department of Biology" is sufficient.

Documents to be submitted

For university lecturers and habilitated members of other departments or external institutions, please submit the following documents:

• curriculum vitae,
• list of publications,
• list of supervised theses (e.g. Bachelor's, Master's, Diploma, Doctorate),
• certificate of the last educational degree (more accurately the last appointment certificateappointment certificate).

For PhDs, please submit the following documents:

• curriculum vitae,
• list of publications,
• list of supervised theses (e.g. Bachelor's, Master's, Diploma, Doctorate),
• doctoral certificate,
• two references with telephone number and e-mail address.

Please send documents in a PDF via e-mail to the study office at promotion.biologie"AT"uni-hamburg.de.

Since we process doctoral procedures electronically, for data protection reasons we ask you to contact us via

• a uni-hamburg email address
• or a studium.uni-hamburg.de email address
• or an email address of the email domains chemie.uni-hamburg.de, informatik.uni-hamburg.de, zbh.uni-hamburg.de, hs.uni-hamburg.de, physik.uni-hamburg.de, physnet.uni-hamburg.de, uke.de or zmnh.uni-hamburg.de

to communicate and submit the above mentioned documents.

You can make a change to your correspondence email address on your own at any time until the oral defense is held after logging into Docata-MIN on the home page via the link Update your personal contact details in Docata now. You will find instructions on how to do this in this FAQ.

Application

If you are unable to complete your doctoral procedure with the disputation within 4 years of the start of the doctoral project, you must submit an informal application for an extension to the Academic Office Biology 3 months before the deadline expires.

The application should include a justification and a proposal for the duration of the extended admission period. Normally the (co-)supervisor must agree to the application and co-sign it (e.g. electronically).

Please send your application as a PDF via e-mail to the Academic Office Biology to promotion.biologie"AT"uni-hamburg.de.

Since we process doctoral procedures electronically, for data protection reasons we ask you to contact us via

• a uni-hamburg email address
• or a studium.uni-hamburg.de email address
• or an email address of the email domains chemie.uni-hamburg.de, informatik.uni-hamburg.de, zbh.uni-hamburg.de, hs.uni-hamburg.de, physik.uni-hamburg.de, physnet.uni-hamburg.de, uke.de or zmnh.uni-hamburg.de

to communicate and submit the above mentioned documents.

You can make a change to your correspondence email address on your own at any time until the oral defense is held after logging into Docata-MIN on the home page via the link Update your personal contact details in Docata now. You will find instructions on how to do this in this FAQ.

Deadlines

Prior to the expiry of the admission deadline, corresponding notifications about the expiry of the deadline are sent (via e-mail) to the doctoral candidates and to the (co-)supervisors.

Applications submitted to the Academic Office Biology by the 22nd of a month (except August and December) will be decided at the following meeting of the Biology Doctoral Committee.

The decision on your application will be sent to you at the beginning of the following month.

Legal basis

Section 5 subsection 5 of the MIN Doctoral Degree Regulations 2018

The doctoral dissertation should generally be completed within three years. Admission shall be valid for an initial period of four years. The doctoral dissertation should be submitted to the subject doctoral committee within this period. Upon the submission of a request setting forth the reasons therefor, the time period may be extended. Any request for more time must be submitted to the subject doctoral committee at the latest three months prior to the expiry of the four-year period. The subject doctoral committee must notify the supervisor and the doctoral candidate of this deadline well before it expires. The subject doctoral committee is responsible for granting or denying any extensions of time with respect to admission.

Section 5 Subsection 5 of the Implementation rules of the departmental doctoral committee of Biology
If the candidate needs to request an extension of the four-year admission period, they must inform
the departmental doctoral committee briefly in an informal letter at least three months
before the deadline as to why they are requesting an extension for the completion of the doctorate.
The same applies to any possible subsequent applications. A maximum extension of
one year is permissible per application.

In accordance with Section 8 of the Doctoral Degree Regulations, “The written doctoral dissertation is the documentation of the aptitude for independent and in-depth scholarly work and the advancement of scholarship with noteworthy results meriting publication”.

1) Form

a) A dissertation comprised of a single, coherent description of research work and results. If unpublished papers form part of the thesis, the candidate must indicate his or her specific contribution. Please see the criteria for properly indicating original work in

or

The dissertation must have a title page with the name of the author, its designation as a doctoral dissertation submitted to the specific faculty and organizational unit at the University of Hamburg, the year of the submission, and a cover page with space provided for the names of the assessors.

2) Language

The dissertation may be written in either English or German. If you wish to use another language other than the two specified, you must submit an informal request to the departmental doctoral committee.

3) Declaration on oath

Please do not forget the signed declaration on oath in each digital and printed copy of your dissertation. There has to be the german text and your signatur in each copy.

4) Technical specifications

There are no specifications prescribed for font sizes, font types, margins, structure, or other matters of formatting.

Important information for the application

To ensure that your dissertation can be sent to the examiners immediately after the meeting of the Departmental Doctoral Committee, the application to open the doctorate preceedings must be submitted together with the dissertation. The Departmental Doctoral Committee meets at the end of each month (except August and December). The application to open the doctorate preceedings (see below) must be submitted no later than one week prior to the meeting (by the 22nd of each month) in order to be treated at the meeting.

We only process applications to open the doctorate proceedings (i.e. submission of the dissertation for evaluation) electronically! Application documents in paper form (except 1 examination copy of the dissertation in paper form for archiving purposes) are not requested, but also not accepted!

The following application documents must be prepared in electronic form for the online application to open the doctorate proceedings and submitted compulsorily as part of the online application:

• Current enrollment certificate (= semester certificate)
• Only if not already submitted during the application process for admission to doctoral procedures: Copy of identification document (e.g. ID card, passport, visa)¹

¹Please note: If you have changed your name after admission to doctoral procedures (e.g. due to marriage) and have not yet reported the name change to us (at the Academic Office), attach the relevant proof of the name change (e.g. marriage certificate) to the rest of the application documents.

• Only if applicable: Proof of interruptions of your doctorate

 The online application is done through Docata-MIN and includes two sections:

 Section 1

1.        Log in to Docata-MIN with the login data of your user account (see FAQ for further information) and fill in the online application to open the doctorate proceedings.

2.       Complete the first section of the online application and download the PDF application file Application to open the doctorate proceedings: tick the applicable declarations in the PDF application file and sign the Application to open the doctorate proceedings by yourself and having it signed by the other persons/entities listed in the application².

²Scanned and electronic signatures are allowed.

 Section 2

 Log in to Docata-MIN and complete the second section of the online application: upload the fully signed Application to open the doctorate proceedings and the remaining application documents (see above) in ONE PDF file (max. size 10 MB) to Docata-MIN and submit via Docata-MIN.

Information on the composition of your examination committee and for the review of your dissertation

Important Information about your examiners (PDF) - one examiner has to be one of your supervisors.

Important Information about your examination commission (PDF)

Wherever possible, commission members should come from different working groups or fields and, if required, an additional member should be appointed or a proposed member substituted. The chair of the examination commission must be held by a The chair of the examination commission must be held by a university lecturer or a hablitated member of the MIN faculty according to § 3 a or 3 c.

Please submit the following documents to the Academic Office with your dissertation:

• 1 printed copy (without CD)
• 1 PDF in Docata (not more than 20MB - must be uploaded when filing the application to open the doctorate preceedings)

Please submit your dissertation together with the application to open the doctorate preceedings digitally and by post to the Academic Office Biology.

Please note the following requirements about the dissertation (doctoral thesis) you are submitting for evaluation with this application:

You must submit only one printed bound copy of the dissertation to the responsible Academic Office for archiving (e.g. by mail). No further hard/paper copies of the dissertation need to be submitted to the responsible Academic Office.

Both the dissertation submitted in electronic form (via the Docata upload) and the printed bound copy of the dissertation submitted to the responsible Academic Office for archiving must contain your signed declaration upon oath.

Upon request, you will provide the appointed members of the examination commission and the reviewers (assessors) each with an additional bound hard copy of the dissertation. Agreements are to be made bilaterally between you and the appointed reviewers (assessors) and examination commission members; the responsible Academic Office is not involved in this coordination/agreement process. This bound hard copy of the dissertation must contain a declaration written and signed by you in which you declare that the copy and the dissertation submitted in electronic form (via the Docata upload) and the printed bound copy of the dissertation submitted to the responsible Academic Office for archiving are identical.

Registrations for the disputation are only accepted when the examination commission has determined the grade of your dissertation and you have received the grade notification. You will receive an email for this purpose.

After you have been informed by the Academic Office about the decision of the examination commission, please arrange the date with the examination commission and submit the form below.

IMPORTANT: PLEASE OPEN THE GRADE NOTIFICATION FILE STORED IN DOCATA. THERE YOU WILL FIND INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO PROCEED. DISPUTATIONS MUST BE REGISTERED AT LEAST 14 DAYS BEFORE THE DATE OF THE DISPUTATION. WITHOUT A REGISTRATION IN DUE TIME, THE DISPUTATION CANNOT TAKE PLACE.

Oral Defense Registration Form (PDF)

You can leave the fields Building and Room empty.

Please plan for respective procedural stages as follows

• authorization of supervisors and appointment of the examination committee by the doctoral committee at the end of each month (except August and December)
• evaluations—six weeks max
• acceptance of the dissertation and grading by the examination committee—two weeks
• Arranging a date for the oral defense with the examination committee
• display of the evaluations and invitation period—at least one week

Should you not be able to complete your promisson procedure within the admission deadline (graduation is the disputation), you must submit an informal application for an extension of the admission period to the Academic Office three months before the end of the deadline. This application must be accompanied by a statement of reasons and must also be signed by the supervisor.

After the disputation, you will receive a form with all the necessary information. For all kinds of publication envisaged on the form, the doctoral student will give a copy to the library of the Departments Biology. The faculty doctoral committee recommends the electronic publication of the thesis (notes from the Stabi).

Hand in the form with the necessary signatures in the study office. After receipt of the quittance of the Stabi the certificate can be issued. The creation of the certificate can take up to 3 months from the date of fulfilment of the publication obligation.

If for substantial reasons a supervisor or the doctoral candidate feels compelled to terminate the supervisory relationship during the course of dissertation work, then they must inform the chair of the subject doctoral committee in writing of the reasons therefor without undue delay.

Upon termination of the supervisory relationship, the doctoral candidate may search for a new supervisor. The subject doctoral committee shall assist the doctoral candidate with his or her search.

Form for the termination of the supervision agreement (PDF)