Defence of the dissertation

With the positive assessment of the doctoral thesis and when all demands of the curriculum have been met a registration for the public defense is possible. This has to be done at the  StudyServiceCenter.

The public defense consists of a presentation of the central findings followed by a general discussion about the research subject with the examination commission. The exact procedure of the public defense (e.g. duration, mode of presentation etc.) varies departmet to department. We therefore recommend to visit public defenses at the respective faculty prior to the own defense.

Examination Commitee: 

Students are allowed to make a suggestion on the composition of the examination commitee, however  the final assembly is decided by the study programme coordinator. 

a. Co-authors are not eligible to be reviewers or members of the examination panel

b. the same holds true for potentially biased members of the faculty 

 

Administration & Deadlines

Students are being informed on the assessment of the thesis as soon as the review is handed in at the SSC. Right after the positive assessment of thesis, a registration to the defence is possible. 

The form "Registration for doctoral thesis defence" has to be handed in at the SSC at least 14 days before the planned defence date. (during officialy breaks longer administration times should be calculated). 

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Defence online

The final oral examinations for PhD and doctorate can now be held digitally and are open to the faculty. For this purpose, an examination room will be set up on Moodle, as a Moodle course with an integrated video conferencing tool. All interested parties of the faculty have the possibility to register for the course via u:account in order to participate in the public presentation. A separate conference room is available to members of the examination senate for the non-public part of the examination. In the end, the grade is announced in the examination room.