1. How to start
2. Announcement of the doctoral thesis
3. Submission of the doctoral thesis
4. After submission: Reviews and oral examination
5. After the oral exam: Publication of the thesis, receipt of the Certificate

• Read the Doctoral degree regulations Faculty 5 carefully: it informs you about the whole process from the acceptance of the doctoral application by the faculty to the awarding of the doctorate.[1]

Doctoral degree regulations of Faculty 5 (in German)

• The contact person at the Dean's Office is Mrs. Lehnigk, who takes also part in the meetings of the Doctoral committee (Promotionsausschuss).

fakultaet5(at)b-tu.de; lehnigk(at)b-tu.de

[1] The title PhD is not awarded by Faculty 5 but only in particular PhD programs such as PhD Heritage Studies.

• Download the application for the doctoral degree: This is a document that you should read and complete with care. Check the list of all the documents that need to be handed in at the Dean’s office Faculty 5 (again Mrs. Lehnigk): fakultaet5(at)b-tu.de
• Fill in the „Zusatzbogen“ information form.

Information form for the application as doctoral candidate of Faculty 5

• The application for a doctorate must pass the Doctoral Committee of Faculty 5: meetings of the Committee usually take place every month.

Promotionsausschuss der Fakultät für Wirtschaft, Recht und Gesellschaft (in German)

• The application must be submitted to the Dean's Office of Faculty 5 at least one week before the relevant meeting.

• Set the submission deadline as soon as you can imagine finalizing your thesis.
• Talk to your supervisors so that everyone is aware of your plans. This should be done about 3-4 months before submission.
• Supervisors can make final comments on the thesis.
• Consider about 4 weeks for final formal work on the dissertation (table of contents, bibliography and list of figures, spelling/grammar check, etc.)

Hinweise zu den einzureichenden Unterlage (in German)

• The application to open the doctoral examination procedure must be submitted to the doctoral committee. The following documents must be enclosed:
  • Formal cover letter (incl. date of inclusion in the doctoral candidature list, title of the dissertation, proposed reviewers, chair of the examination committee, assessors)
  • Curriculum vitae in tabular form
  • List of publications
  • Declaration(s) of independence
  • Bound copies of the dissertation: 1x per reviewer, +2 for the faculty, i.e. at least 4 copies (see template for cover sheet)

Submit to the Dean's Office one week before the relevant meeting of the faculty's doctoral committee (check/clarify meeting dates on the faculty webpage!)

• After the meeting of the doctoral committee, you will receive a message from the Dean's office as to whether the application has been approved (allow approx. 1 week for processing)
• If the application is accepted, copies of the thesis will be sent to the reviewers

The further process depends on when the reviews are submitted; it makes sense to clarify at an early stage how long the reviewers need (possibly set a deadline!); 2 months seems to me to be a realistic suggestion.

• Once the reviews have been received, the dissertation can be prepared for public display in the Dean's Office (approx. 3-4 working days)
• Duration of the public display of the dissertation including reviews: two weeks (note public holidays and closing times of the university and the dean's office!)
• There is another two-week objection period after the end of the display period
• The oral examination can take place at the earliest one week after the end of the objection period
• Try to organize a date and time for the oral examination as soon as possible (in consultation with the chair of the examination committee who is officially in charge of this task)
• The oral examination can take place in presence or online

• After the oral examination has been passed, the commission issues the certificate of readiness for printing (eventually with conditions);

From this moment onwards, you are officially a “Dr.”, others can call you a “Dr.”, but you are not yet allowed to do so yourself.

• The thesis must be published within one year after the oral examination. You are not entitled to hold the degree before the thesis is published!
  • You have several options for publishing the thesis (see Publications at BTU). A fast one is publishing it via the university library, where you must hand in an electronic version as well as five printed copies of the thesis (approx. 1 week)
• After the publishing of the thesis is confirmed, the Dean’s office issues the Certificate (approx. 2 weeks)
• Only when you have received the certificate, you are entitled to hold the doctorate.

After submission of the doctoral thesis to the dean's office, you should therefore expect approx. 16 weeks until the oral examination can take place and a further 4 weeks for publishing and receiving the certificate, in total: 5 months. Considering the additional time for preparing the submission of the thesis, you can expect about 8 months of total time from the decision to schedule the submission to the end of the doctoral examination procedure and the receipt of the certificate.

At least that's how it went for me  – Georg Hausladen