6. Application for Admission to Doctoral Studies
6. Application for Admission to Doctoral Studies
6.1. Do I need to be enrolled to do my doctorate?
No, you do not have to be enrolled.
6.2. What should I pay attention to when providing my personal information?
Please make sure to always write your name the same way during the entire process:
- Your first name must always be provided.
- If you have other first names or a middle name, you can provide these but are not required to. Your diploma will state the name you used throughout the process.
- If you have another last name in addition to your maiden name – because you're married –, you must provide both.
Your place of birth must be provided exactly as written on your ID or in your passport. If you were not born in Germany, the country of birth must be included in parentheses.
WARNING: Only those academic titles can be used that have been awarded and are recognized either officially or in Germany. Doctor and pharmacist are not academic titles.
We recommend not using any foreign titles you may have as these must be used in accordance with the standards of the ministry responsible, and you may ended up needing to pay to have the titles certified.
6.3. What do I need to include on my signed tabular resume?
You must include your name, place of birth, date of birth, and the most important information about your career thus far. The resume must be signed. Please make note of the question "What should I pay attention to when providing my personal information?“.
6.4. What do I need to pay attention to when filling out the application (Template 1)?
No statements may be deleted and the bold text must be adjusted and filled in. The title of the dissertation must be identical to the title provided in the application.
Make sure your contact information is complete including a phone number and email address.
6.5. What certificates or documentation must be submitted according to Sections 8-9 of the Examination Regulation?
Please submit either the certificate confirming you passed the third section of the medical examination in according with Section 32 of the ÄAppO or a notarized copy of your medical license certificate.
If you completed your studies abroad and do not have a German medical license, please submit the certificate of equivalence from the International Office together with your certificates.
Please note that you must first submit a request to have your admissions prerequisites reviewed if you do not have a German medical license.
If you have not yet completed your studies, you must submit the certificate confirming you have passed the second section of the medical examination (M2neu) (when applying for Dr. med.) or the certificate confirming you completed the course Zahnheilkunde II (when applying for Dr. med. dent.).
6.6. What is an officially certified or notarized copy?
Officially certified copies can only be issued by offices and notaries.
Notarizations are not accepted from hospitals, insurance companies, banks, savings banks, schools, or parish offices.
The Dean's Office at the Faculty of Medicine notarizes your documents for your dissertation free of charge.
6.7. What do I need to pay attention to when submitting my four bound dissertation copies?
6.7.1. General
Four bound copies of the dissertation in DIN A4 format must be submitted. Ring or spiral bindings are not accepted.
The pages must be in the correct order as provided on the info sheet.
If you are submitting one or more publications as your dissertation, you must submitted an additional copy of your publication(s) for your file.
6.7.2. Cover Page
The cover page is the first printed page on the inside. Please use Muster 2 for the cover page and fill in your personal information.
You may not include any other information on the cover page.
The doctorate you intend to acquire and the male/female form must be adjusted.
Please make note of the question "What should I pay attention to when providing my personal information?" or „Wie muss ich meine persönlichen Angaben nennen?“ and that doctor and dentist are not academic degrees but occupational titles.
6.7.3. Statements to be Included
You must include the following in the bound dissertations. Be sure to follow the correct order as indicated on the info sheet:
In all cases:
- Statement on Data Storage Section 5 Paragraph 1 (Muster 3)
Additionally:
- If submitting a "normal" dissertation: Muster 4 A
- If submitting a "normal" dissertation and a publication: Muster 4 A
Note: Muster 4 B must only be additionally submitted. - If submitting one or more publications as the dissertation: Muster 5
The affadavits in the dissertation do not need to be signed. However, the original affadavit that you submit must be signed. Please see the question "What do I need to pay attention to in the affadavit?"
6.8. How do I refer to protected trademarks/product names in my dissertation?
As long as you only refer to the trademark, you are not violating trademark law.
This means you do not need to label anything. Additionally, mentioning the company is free advertising for them, meaning you might actually encounter problems if you don't provide the product name.
You are asked to use caution once you start to negatively portray a product. In this case, you must be certain your data is correct, even if academic freedom takes priority over to trademark law in the Basic Law.
You will only potentially encounter problems if your statements are untrue.
6.9. How many copies of the publication do I need to submit?
When submitting one or more publications as your dissertation:
- Four "bound" copies including cover page and statements
- One additional copy of the publication(s) for your file; a spring binder is sufficient here.
If you are submiting a normal dissertation and an additional publication:
- Five copies of the publication as a special print or copy
6.10. What do I need to pay attention to in the affadavit?
Please make sure to correctly indicate the §§.
Use the following templates:
If submitting a "normal" dissertation: Muster 4 A
- The doctoral candidate and doctoral supervisor's signatures must be on the same page as the text of the affadavit. The original copy must be submitted.
- Please speak with your supervisor about the composition of the affadavit. The sections must be clearly evident and umambiguous. Bei doppelter Nennung (zum Beispiel wenn die statistische Auswertung durch mehrere Personen erfolgte), müssen die Anteile spezifiziert werden, ggf. durch Angabe in Prozentzahlen (Gesamtzahl muss 100 Prozent ergeben).
If submitting an additional one or more publications: additionally Muster 4 B
- All signatures must appear on the page with the text of the affadavit – you may need to print multiple copies of the affadavit – so that it is clear that the authors have signed the text of the affadavit. The original signatures from the doctoral candidate, doctoral supervisor, senior author – the corresponding author, if different from the supervisor –, and the equal co-author, if applicable.
- Muster 4 B is not bound with the dissertation.
- Please speak with your supervisor about the composition of the affadavit. The sections must be clearly evident and umambiguous. Bei doppelter Nennung (zum Beispiel wenn die statistische Auswertung durch mehrere Personen erfolgte), müssen die Anteile spezifiziert werden, gegebenenfalls durch Angabe in Prozentzahlen (Gesamtzahl muss 100 Prozent ergeben).
- The doctoral supervisor may only sign for co-authors, who are not German speakers. Co-authors, who only live abroad but are German speakers, must sign themselves.
If submitting a publication as your dissertation: Muster 5
- All signatures must appear on the page with the text of the affadavit – you may need to print multiple copies of the affadavit – so that it is clear that the authors have signed the text of the affadavit. The original signatures from the doctoral candidate, doctoral supervisor, senior author – the corresponding author, if different from the supervisor –, and the equal co-author, if applicable.
- Please speak with your supervisor about the composition of the affadavit. The sections must be clearly evident and umambiguous. Bei doppelter Nennung (z.B. wenn die statistische Auswertung durch mehrere Personen erfolgte), müssen die Anteile spezifiziert werden, ggf. durch Angabe in Prozentzahlen (Gesamtzahl muss 100 Prozent ergeben).
- You absolutely must have independently composed the manuscript in order to submit a publication as a dissertation.
- The doctoral supervisor may only sign for co-authors, who are not German speakers. Co-authors, who only live abroad but are German speakers, must sign themselves.
- We do not recommend trying to do your doctorate with a publication, if you share first authorship, as publications are only accepted as dissertations when the docotral candidate is the first author and completed the majority of the publication, that is at least 51 percent. This particularly applies to those who share first authorship; they must be named first. If the doctoral candidate is not named first, but rather the postdoc, for example, this contradicts the doctoral candidate's affadavit and is thus questionable good academic practice. If there are more than two equal first authors, the paper is not admissable as a dissertation, as the candidate can no longer claim 51 percent of the work.
The original copies of the affadavits must be submitted.
6.11. How do I get a certificate confirming I completed the academic misconduct course?
The completion certificates for the academic misconduct course are not handed out by the Faculty of Medicine. They are collected in the Doctoral Office and added to the individual doctoral applications.
If you earned the certificate at another university, include it with your documents. You should check with the Doctoral Office in advance about having approval for a course taken elsewhere. Generally only certificates for GWP or good academic practice are accepted, while certificates for GCP or good clinical practical are not.
If you have questions about the course, please contact:
Dagmar Marx
Institute of Immunology
Phone: +49 241 80 80208
dmarx@ukaachen.de
6.12. What do I need to pay attention to in the abstract?
You must include the German or English title of the dissertation and the name of the doctoral candidate.
Abstracts may not exceed more than one DIN A4 page.
Five copies of the abstract must be printed in both German and English in addition to the dissertation, each on a single DIN A4 page.
You must also save the abstracts as both a Word and PDF file on a CD or sending them via E-mail to dissertationen@ukaachen.de.
6.13. What do I need to know about the certificate of good conduct, type O?
You can request the certificate of good conduct, type O, from the Registration Office. Type O certificates of good conduct are not sent to private addressed. You must have the Registration Office send the certificate directly to the Doctoral Office.
Dekanat der Medizinischen Fakultät der RWTH Aachen
Promotionsbüro
Universitätsklinikum Aachen
Pauwelsstraße 30
52074 Aachen
Even if you live abroad, you must submit a German certificate of good conduct. You can request one through the embassy.
6.14. What do I need to know when choosing the readers and the doctoral review committee?
When nominating the reviewers and chair you must include their clinic/instiutute and who will coordinate the oral defense (Muster 6). This must be approved by all those involved.
The doctoral supervisor should always be a reader. However, if this is not possible, please contact the Doctoral Office.
One of the readers can also be external and have completed Habilitation. One reader must always be an active member of the Faculty of Medicine.
Important: The chair of the doctoral review committee must be a university professor of the RWTH Aachen. Any Privatdozent or adjunct professor at the Faculty of Medicine can be the reader or co-reader. It does not matter if they are a doctor or have other training.
All three examiners must be from different clinics and institutes so that there are no dependencies. This is required by the doctoral regulation and the NRW Bias Act. Dependencies and mutual powers to direct are decisive here, including in relation to clinical concerns. One of the reviewers must have an employment contract at RWTH.
The exam coordinator must be a member of the doctoral review committee, i.e. reader, co-reader, or chair.
The exam coordinator is reponsible for setting the date and sending the invitation, not the Doctoral Office. The Doctoral Office does not need to be informed of the date.
6.15. What should be considered when submitting the dissertation and abstracts on CD or sending via e-mail?
The dissertation must additionally be submitted electronically on a CD / DVD (No USB sticks!) OR sent via E-mail to dissertationen@ukaachen.de.
Notice: The total size of the contents of the E-mail, e.g. attachment, must not exceed 20 MB.
By sending the files by E-mail you automatically agree to the processing of your data.
The CD/DVD/E-mail must contain the following six files:
- If submitting a "normal" dissertation:
- Dissertation with cover page and all necessary affadavits et cetera as a single Word file or another common word processing program file and as a single PDF file
- The files must be identical to the printed dissertation.
- German and English abstract each as a Word and PDF file
- If submitting a "normal" dissertation and a publication:
- Dissertation with cover page and all necessary affadavits et cetera as a single Word file or another common word processing program file and as a single PDF file
- The files must be identical to the printed dissertation.
- The publication is not saved to the CD resp will not be submitted via e-mail
- German and English abstracts each as a Word and PDF file
- If submitting one or more publications as a dissertation:
- Dissertation with cover page and all necessary affadavits and the accepted publication manuscript (with author order, publication title, if possible the journal header, date of acceptance)or the already published publication (with author order, publication title, journal header, date of publication, et centera) as a Word file or another common word processing program file and as a single PDF file
- The files must be identical to the printed dissertation.
- German and English abstracts each as a Word and PDF file
6.16. How can I make corrections to my application for admission to the doctoral studies process?
Errors, such as on the cover page, can be corrected and then submitted and included as a loose piece of paper.
Please note if you need to included any corrections in your dissertation, you must submit five copies of the correction and you must make sure to include the corrections on the CD OR appropriately marked as corrections must be emailed to dissertationen@ukaachen.de.
Notice: The total size of the contents of the E-mail, e.g. attachment, must not exceed 20 MB.
By sending the files by E-mail you automatically agree to the processing of your data.