Review
The evaluation of the written doctoral thesis usually takes about 6 months (obtaining the expert opinions, deadlines for display, semester breaks...). You will be automatically informed in writing about acceptance of the thesis, correction requirements or missing documents.
The oral examination is to be held no later than 12 months after the dissertation grade proposal has been submitted by the doctoral committee.
Please understand that due to the large number of procedures, it is not always possible to answer interim requests about the status of the procedure.
Recommendations for assessment
The following criteria are taken into account when evaluating a thesis:
Second opinion
As soon as you have submitted your dissertation and all documents concerning the application for admission, a second reviewer will be appointed at the next meeting of the doctoral committee (remains anonymous during the procedure). The reviewers evaluate the objective, execution and scientific statement of the dissertation and propose its acceptance or rejection to the doctoral committee. In case of acception, the reviewers evaluate the dissertation according to the evaluation criteria of the faculty. They may recommend conditions for the final version of the dissertation.
Reviewers are busy professors and private lecturers, expect the review to take its time; we automatically remind after 4 weeks.
Doctoral Committee
If the second expert opinion is available, the thesis is sent to the doctoral committee 14 days before the next meeting date. The committee will make a grade proposal based on the expert opinions and the evaluation criteria. You will be informed of any correction requirements.
Oral examination
After a positive grade proposal has been submitted by the committee and the examiners have been determined, you have one year to organize your oral examination (according to § 11 PromO). For this purpose, you determine the place (e.g. your AG seminar room) and the time for the examination with your examiners and inform the office of doctoral affairs at least four weeks before the planned examination for the purpose of announcement (the examination is open to the university).
Doctoral Conference
After passing the oral examination, your dissertation will be submitted first to the committee (if grade suggestions for the overall evaluation have been submitted by the examiners) and finally to the Faculty Doctoral Conference for final acceptance and evaluation. Before a decision is made, the dissertations will be available for 14 days for inspection by the members of the doctoral conference at the office of doctoral affairs.
After this final evaluation, you and your doctoral supervisor will be notified by us in writing and you will be informed how many copies of your dissertation you have to submit to fulfill your publication obligation.