Fakultät Akademische… Doctorate Doctorate in med. /… Information for…

Information for supervisors

According to § 6 of the doctoral regulations "Dr. med./dent." all university teachers and private lecturers belonging to our faculty can supervise doctoral candidates.

In addition to your supervisory duties as specified in § 6 of the doctoral regulations, you as the official supervisor are obliged to

  • obtain a recognition of the ZAB for the foreign university degree of your candidate (see admission to doctoral studies),
  • obtain a vote of the responsible ethics committee or an animal experimentation permit,
  • support doctoral students in fulfilling the requirements of the MEDISS doctoral program,
  • give an informative vote on the dissertation of your doctoral candidate,
  • evaluate the oral examination (disputation) as one of the two examiners.

If the doctoral candidate to be supervised by you has already been accepted at the time of your habilitation, a change of supervisor can be made. A change of supervisor has to be notified in writing, former and new supervisor(s) have to sign mutually. A new doctoral agreement must be concluded.

Admission to doctorate

The following applicants can be admitted to the "Dr. med. (dent)":

  • with completed German medical or dental studies
  • in parallel with their studies after passing an intermediate (dental) medical examination (with proof of enrollment at a German university)
  • with a foreign (dental) medical degree

a) only after completion of medical or dental studies with German professional license / approbation.

b) or after positive evaluation of the foreign degree by the Central Office for Foreign Education (ZAB) in Bonn

Graduates of the Faculty of Medicine of Tongji University in Wuhan (a partner faculty) do not need to submit a ZAB certificate.

Please note: Applicants from China must also provide a certificate from the Academic Testing Service (APS). After receiving the APS certificate and being admitted to a German university, applicants can submit their visa applications directly to the APS.

In the ZAB database 'anabin' you will find lists of most foreign universities and degrees with information about their recognition. For university degrees from the EU, a printout from the anabin database confirming equivalence is usually sufficient for registration.

Please note that the ZAB needs several weeks/months for the recognition of foreign degrees. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to submit the request before the candidate enters the country. The ZAB should be asked for an opinion on the doctoral admission (not on the professional admission or certificate evaluation!).

The approved sample cover letter will be provided by the Office of doctoral affairs upon request. (The DKFZ asks the supervisors of the Center to contact the Human Resources Department or the Graduate School regarding the request to the ZAB).

Copies of the following documents must be sent to the ZAB:

  1. Bachelor's degree: certificate, transcripts (in original language and, if applicable, English or German translation by a sworn translator)
  2. Master's degree: certificate, transcripts/certificates (in original language and, if applicable, English or German translation by sworn translator)

Doctoral Application

Please note that according to the doctoral regulations only one prospective doctoral thesis can be registered. The necessary approvals (animal experiment approval / ethics vote) must be available or have been applied for before registration. Only after acceptance as a doctoral candidate the ISH access to work on the doctoral project can be assigned.

When taking on the supervision of foreign candidates, please also note: Applicants whose native language is neither German nor English must submit proof of language proficiency with their application for acceptance as a doctoral candidate.

Doctoral supervision

The MEDISS doctoral program has requirements for your doctoral students in the areas of good scientific practice, scientific exchange and core/key competencies. As a supervisor, we would like to ask you to support your doctoral student by giving him/her access to a doctoral student/working group seminar, a literature seminar/journal club and a national/international conference. In addition, discuss together which courses individually tailored to the topic and the doctoral student could be considered for the acquisition of core competencies for the scientific work.

Evaluation and duration of the doctorate

As the official supervisor, you write the initial review (Votum Informativum) of the doctoral thesis. The office of doctoral affairs will be happy to provide you with a template for a standardized initial evaluation and the evaluation form upon request.

A Dr. med. procedure at our faculty takes about 18 months: at least 12 months to complete the dissertation plus about 6-8 months to obtain the expert opinions and to conduct the oral examination. The time of the evaluation procedure depends on reviewer deadlines, meeting dates or possible conditions. Doctoral students have one year after exam approval to arrange the date for the disputation.

Doctoral candidates should be informed at the time of recruitment that they may have to re-enter the country for the oral examination.

Information for reviewers

According to §9 of the doctoral regulations, at least one additional expert opinion must be obtained in addition to the informative vote. For an evaluation of the dissertation with the grade "summa cum laude", the doctoral committee obtains two additional external expert opinions.

We ask you to prepare your independent structured review within a maximum of four weeks. The faculty's evaluation criteria must be taken into account. In your review, you can point out deficiencies and errors and request the corresponding corrections. The corrected version of the dissertation with a list of the changes made may be sent to you again for a final review. The template for a structured review will be sent to you by the office for doctoral affairs. We will also be happy to answer any questions you may have when preparing a review.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you very much for your efforts!

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