Your path to a doctorate at CARRI

(1) Find a CARRI member who is willing to provide your initial care.

(2) Draw up a research proposal (English version) in close consultation with your primary supervisor.

(3) Once your research proposal has been accepted by your primary supervisor, you should draw up a supervision agreement (English version) with your primary supervisor and – if applicable – with your secondary supervisor, and have them sign it.

(4) You should then upload all the necessary documents via docDaten.

(5) Once the administrative office has reviewed your online application, you must either submit the original copies of the complete certificates and documents you have uploaded – including your higher education entrance qualification and proof of identity – to the administrative office, or send certified copies by post.

Only the ‘copy for the registry’ of the application, bearing the original signatures, is required. A copy of the CV and the supervision agreement is not required.

• If you are a doctoral candidate at the university, you will automatically be granted access to the Library and digital resources.
• If you are undertaking a doctorate as an external student, you can apply for a guest account through your supervisor’s department or enrol as a student (the latter option is only available at HM).
• Further information on enrolment can be found at:
  • Section 18 of the HM Enrolment Regulations
  • On the Graduate School’s website

The general accompanying doctoral programme consists of the following compulsory elements:

• Compulsory courses:
  • Good scientific practice (usually comprising 7 hours)
  • Academic Work / Academic Writing (usually comprising 14 hours)

• Students must also choose courses totalling at least 14 hours from the range of compulsory elective modules offered by the partner universities.

Here you will find the current courses at Hochschule München, as well as the courses at Nuremberg University of Applied Sciences and the course dates at OTH. As a rule, students attend compulsory courses in particular at their host university.

The accompanying doctoral programme consists of the following compulsory components:

• Doctoral candidates are required to participate regularly and actively in the research colloquium organised by the Doctoral Research Center. Each doctoral candidate must present the progress of their doctoral project at least three times. You can find the current dates and venues here. Please make a note of the dates. Regular participation means that you must attend all colloquia throughout the duration of your doctoral degree and contribute actively to the discussions.
• Doctoral candidates must present their doctoral research project for discussion to the academic community at least once during the course of their doctoral studies. This is usually done by presenting the doctoral research project at a recognised conference with a peer-review process.
• At least once per semester, doctoral candidates and their supervisors must hold a joint feedback meeting to discuss the progress of the doctoral project and the accompanying doctoral programme, and to agree on the next steps. The doctoral candidates summarise the results in minutes and have these countersigned by their supervisors.
• The supervisor may arrange for further subject-specific training courses as required.

You must document your completion of the accompanying doctoral programme using the form Dokumentation_PBP_CARRI and collect the necessary supporting documents. You must submit these to the Administrative Office by email before submitting your doctorate, as described in the form.

Please discuss the submission of your monograph or your publication-based dissertation with your supervisor.

Account activation in docDaten

To apply for admission to the doctoral programme, you must have your account activated in docDaten (the Munich University of Applied Sciences' doctoral programme management software). To do this, please send an informal email to the administration office. Your account will usually be activated within the next few working days.

Please ensure you have the following documents ready in full:

• An up-to-date curriculum vitae in accordance with Section 20(2), first sentence, point 2 of the RPromO
• Written doctoral thesis (at least four copies and an electronic version)
• In the event of provisional approval pursuant to section 20(4), fourth sentence, of the RPromO, evidence of the fulfilment of the conditions
• Evidence of successful completion of the compulsory components of the accompanying doctoral programme
  • To do this, please use Form Dokumentation_PBP_CARRI. Complete it in accordance with the instructions and send it to the Doctoral Centre’s administrative office no later than two weeks before submission as an editable Word file, together with the supporting documents compiled into a single PDF in the correct order.
  • The form, once checked by the office, will be returned to you by email and you can upload it to docDaten as proof.
• A declaration regarding prior publications in accordance with Section 22(3) of the RPromO, together with a list of such prior publications and a complete and up-to-date list of all other academic publications by the doctoral candidate
• A current official certificate of good conduct
• If the title of your dissertation has changed, please notify the administration office of the new title by email and put your primary supervisor in CC. You cannot change the title yourself in docDaten.

Application for admission to the doctoral programme

Once your account has been activated, you can edit and download the application for admission to the doctoral programme. In particular, you must provide the following details:

• Current contact details
• Indication of whether the doctoral degree is to be awarded in the feminine form
• Declarations

Please also check the details regarding the title of the written doctoral thesis and the doctoral degree. You cannot change either of these yourself. If necessary, please contact the PZ administrative office.

Download the application from docDaten and send it to your primary supervisor for their opinion on the commencement of the doctoral programme and for their proposal regarding the composition of the examination board.

You should then upload the signed application, together with the comments and the proposed composition of the examination board, to docDaten. The PZ administrative office will review the documents you have uploaded.

Once you have received confirmation that the documents have been reviewed, please send the application, the mandatory copies and the remaining original documents to the PZ administrative office:

Address:

Promotionszentrum CARRI

z. Hd. Dr. Christiane Hamacher

Lothstraße 34

80335 München

Required information on the title page

The title page of the doctoral thesis must contain the following information:

• the title of the doctoral thesis
• any subtitles, if applicable
• the doctoral degree to be awarded
• the name of the doctoral centre
• the name of the supervisor or the names of the supervisors
• the full name of the doctoral candidate
• the date of submission of the doctoral thesis
• the partner universities, with the supervising university clearly indicated

You can find a template for the title page of your dissertation here.

Dissertations written in a foreign language follow the German format, but list the foreign-language title first, followed by the German title (§ 22 Abs. 4 RPromO).

The Doctoral Committee appoints the first examiner and the second examiner. The first supervisor is usually appointed as the first examiner. The second supervisor is usually appointed as the second examiner.

• For each oral examination, the Doctoral Committee appoints an examination board, which generally comprises the first examiner, the second examiner and a further person qualified to award a doctorate, who chairs the board.
• The oral examination consists of:
  • a 30-minute academic presentation delivered extemporaneously, followed by a discussion of the objectives, approaches and findings of the written doctoral thesis
  • followed by a discussion lasting at least 45 minutes.

• All members of the partner universities are admitted to the oral examination (presentation and discussion). By mutual agreement with the candidate, a wider public may be admitted to the presentation.

The written doctoral thesis (dissertation), in the version approved by the Supervisors, must be submitted to the university library of the host university for public access in one of the following publication formats:

• six printed copies, if the complete thesis, designated as a written doctoral thesis, is published by a publisher as a book with an ISBN and the publisher confirms a minimum print run of 150 copies or makes it available as an e-book published by the publisher that is permanently accessible online, or
• six printed and bound copies of a digital version of the written doctoral thesis published on the university library’s publication server; in this case, the doctoral candidate grants the university the right to reproduce the thesis, make it available on data networks and convert it into other formats as part of its statutory duties.

In any case, a printed copy of the written doctoral thesis is retained in the doctoral file at the Doctoral Research Center.

Further details are set out in Section 28 of the RPromO.

The doctoral degree may only be used once the certificate has been issued. The rights acquired will lapse if the statutory copies are not submitted on time.

In the event that a publication has been subject to a publication embargo, an informal application may be made to the Doctoral Committee to use the title provisionally.