This is an informal guide with no warranties. The formal and binding regulations can be found on the pages of the Faculty of Technology (-> Promotion) and in particular in the guidelines. There are also some pages of the International Office with special information for international PhD candidates.

There are two options to perform your PhD at our department:

1. freie Promotion / “individual doctorate”: Your PhD will be just a matter of you and your advisor.
2. PhD study program (e.g. Bioinformatics): This includes additional supervision, quality management, and an individual qualification program (getting credits for / transcript on everything you do beyond your PhD project).

For DILS members, the second option applies, of course.

Apart from research and writing things up, there are a few but vital organizational matters to be considered for getting your PhD. Here is an outline of the major steps:

1. Get the admission for the PhD procedure (when you start)
2. Enroll as a PhD student (when you start)
3. Decide on your reviewers and your committee (a month before handing in)
4. Hand in the thesis
5. Defend your thesis
6. Publish your thesis

Please verify the statements below by reading the Examination Regulations (Rahmenpromotionsordnung, Promotionsordnung) of the Department of Technology that are linked here. If you are enrolled in a graduate program or doctoral study program, several additional regulations apply, see their web pages.

When you start your PhD, you have to get admitted to the PhD procedure in Bielefeld. In order to get admitted, write a letter to the Dean of the Faculty of Technology, stating that you want to get admitted, whether you have been in a PhD procedure anywhere before and acknowledge the examination regulations.

An den Dekan der Technischen Fakultät
Universität Bielefeld
Postfach 100131
33501 Bielefeld

Annahme als Doktorand

Sehr geehrter Herr / geehrte Frau <TITLE AND NAME OF DEAN>,

hiermit beantrage ich die Annahme als Doktorand an der Technischen Fakultät der Universität Bielefeld nach §6 der Rahmenpromotionsordnung der Universität Bielefeld und Nr. 5 Promotionsordnung der Technischen Fakultät. Ich beabsichtige eine Promotion im Rahmen des Promotionsstudiengangs Bioinformatik.

Ich erkläre, dass ich die o.g. Promotionsordnungen zur Kenntnis genommen habe. Ich habe bisher keine laufenden oder vorausgegangenen Promotionsgesuche gestellt.

Das in Aussicht genommene Thema der Dissertation lautet <THESIS TOPIC>. Der betreuende Hochschullehrer ist <TITLE AND NAME OF ADVISOR>.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen,


Anlagen:
1) Betreuungsvereinbarung
2) Lebenslauf
3) beglaubigte Zeugniskopien
4) Formular zur Bescheinigung über die Annahme als Doktorand zur Vorlage im Studierenden Sekretariat
5) Publikationsliste

Regarding the attachments:

1. Supervision agreement Add you name, your advisors name, tick-mark one of the options (“free PhD” or PhD program), add the date and sign on the left. Then ask your advisor to sign it.
2. CV
3. sealed copies of BA and MA certificates and transcripts
4. Acceptance as PhD candidate Add your name, leave Matrikelnummer blank if you do not have a student ID yet, add working title of PhD project.
5. List of publications

You can hand in all these documents at the examination office.

The admission is valid for at least five years, so try to get this done way before you plan to finish your thesis.

Once you receive the admission as a PhD student from the examination office, you have to proceed to the central Study Office of the university. For the enrollment, you have to compile similar papers as above. Depending on whether you have a German or international degree, this is less or more complicated. Please follow the instructions given on this page under “Enrolment”.

You need at least two reviewers for your thesis. One of them must be a professor of the Faculty of Technology, where usually a group leader counts as professor in this sense, and at least one must be independent of your project. Your committee has four members: The two reviewers, one member of the level of postdoc/group leader and one chair person who is a professor of the Faculty of Technology and none of your reviewers.

When handing in your thesis, you have to propose both the reviewers and the committee members. However, this is only a proposal, and the ultimate decision is made by the Faculty Conference. Nevertheless, they will usually agree with your proposal.

You can hand in your thesis at the examination office (see above). You need the following items/statements:

1. which degree you wish to achieve (e.g. Dr. rer. nat. or Dr.-Ing.)
2. your supervisor
3. thesis title
4. proposal for the reviewers and members of the committee
5. that you are aware of the Frame Doctoral Regulations of Bielefeld University (Rahmenpromotionsordnung) as well at the Doctoral Regulations of the Faculty of Technology
6. that you do not have any other current or previous PhD procedures opened
7. A declaration that you did everything on your own and did not use other material than stated in the thesis (some people print this this statement inside the thesis, but it can also be written on a separate sheet).
8. A declaration whether you allow your defense to be open to the public

You also have to hand in:

1. 3+x printed and bound copies of your thesis where x is the number of reviewers, send as PDF in advance
2. A letter from one professor of the Faculty of Technology that he/she is willing to review your thesis
3. A signed CV and an updated list of publications

Here a template

An den Dekan der Technischen Fakultät
Universität Bielefeld
Postfach 100131
33501 Bielefeld

Antrag auf Eröffnung des Promotionsverfahrens

Sehr geehrter Herr / geehrte Frau <TITLE AND NAME OF DEAN>,

hiermit beantrage ich die Eröffnung meines Promotionsverfahrens an der Technischen Fakultät der Universität Bielefeld nach §8 der Rahmenpromotionsordnung der Universität Bielefeld vom 1. Juni 2023 und Nr. 7 Promotionsordnung der Technischen Fakultät vom 1. März 2011.

Der von mir angestrebte Doktorgrad lautet “Doktor der Naturwissenschaften” Dr. rer. nat. (Dr. rerum naturalium).

Meine Dissertation ist eine Monografie mit dem Titel <THESIS TITLE>. Die Arbeit wurde von <SUPERVISOR> betreut.

Mein Vorschlag für die Bestellung der Gutachter*innen und die weitere Besetzung der Prüfungskommission lautet:

Gutachter*innen:
…

Weitere Besetzung der Prüfungskommission: …
X (Vorsitz)
Y (Mittelbau)
…

Ich erkläre, dass ich die o.g. Promotionsordnungen zur Kenntnis genommen habe. Ich habe noch keine laufende oder vorausgegangene Promotionsgesuche gestellt. Ich erkläre außerdem, dss ich mein Promotionsthema selbstständig bearbeitet und die Dissertation eigenständig verfasst habe.

Ich bin damit einverstanden, dass das wissenschaftliche Gespräch bei der Disputation universitätsöffentlich stattfindet.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen,


Anlagen:
1) Dissertation in (x+3)-facher Ausfertigung
2) Erklärung des Betreuers
3) Lebenslauf
4) Publikationsliste
[5) ggf. der Nachweis der promotionsvorbereitenden Studien oder der Erfüllung weiterer Auflagen]

The whole procedure gets started in the next Faculty Meeting (Fakultätskonferenz, FaKo). If you want to reach the next meeting in which your PhD procedure should be opened, make sure that you hand in all letters at least 8 working days before the meeting at the examination office. Your case has to be presented at the meeting (usually by your advisor), but also in the professors meeting (Hochschullehrerbesprechung) taking place two weeks before the conference. Make sure that your advisor (or someone else) takes care!

In the Faculty Meeting, the faculty members decide if the procedure will be opened. The decision is usually not a big problem but you have to make sure that you are on the agenda. If everything worked out you will receive a letter confirming the procedure shortly after the meeting.

Please note that the faculty conference only takes place 3-4 times each semester and not during the semester breaks. If you are not sure about the dates, talk to the examination office. Usually, you have the chance to start your procedure during semester breaks in a so-called “Umlauf-FaKo”. Your supervisor has to announce you on the last professors meeting and regular Faculty Meeting before the semester break, even if you did not yet hand in the thesis.

After the procedure has been opened, the reviewers have 8 weeks to write their reviews and hand them in to the examination office. Afterwards, you have two weeks to acknowledge the reviews and you also have the right to hand in comments on the reviews, for example if you do not agree with them. To save time, you can acknowledge on the first day.

After this, the reviews and your comments are then made public for two weeks, and every faculty member has the right to make a formal objection on either your thesis or one of the reviews.

Assuming no one objects, you can then announce the defense of your thesis. The examination office will also officially announce the defense. This can only be done after the two weeks mentioned above and at least one week before the defense.

In case of time pressure, get in contact to the examination office to figure out the exact timing of everything.

Please note that the defense has to be officially announced to the Faculty, otherwise the defense has to be repeated which actually happened a few times. Usually, the examination office does the announcement, but you have to provide at least 2 weeks prior to the defense the date and time, as well as the room.

The defense consists of a 45 minutes presentation by you and a discussion of your thesis of at least 60 minutes (well, in fact it is often much less). Usually, the public is also allowed to ask questions, although these are not taken into account when grading your defense. The committee members are not restricted to questions on your thesis but may also ask about related topics. Immediately after the (successful) defense, your are given your grade for the defense. You are still not a PhD, you may only use the doctoral degree after your thesis has been published. (There are rumors that at least you may legally choose not to object if someone calls you Dr.) So, the only thing left to do is the publication of your thesis.

Basically, you have a few choices: If you wrote a brilliant thesis with overwhelmingly exiting results, you may want to publish it as a book. Most others will publish online via the university library. In any case, you have one year after your defense to get your thesis published. The university's online publication service is called PubTheses. On the webpage, you find instructions for publishing a PhD thesis. (The file name of the pdf will not be changed by the system, so better name it something meaningful.) Basically, together with the pdf-file you have to deliver three printed copies of the thesis identical to the pdf version. They must be printed on alterungsbeständigem, holz- und säurefreiem Papier nach DIN-ISO 9706 and you must also declare this in the thesis. After you got through the web form on BieSOn, a declaration will be shown (in html) that you have to print out and sign, stating that you transfer the publication rights to the library etc. After that, bring the signed form and the 3 copies of your thesis (1 for the Faculty of Technology and 2 for the library) to the examination office where the necessary parts are forwarded to the library. Usually you don't have to go to the library yourself. You also need to declare that your reviewers accept this final version.

Now, you wait for approximately 3 days for the library to check your submitted thesis. Then, you will get a mail saying you can get your PhD certificate (“Urkunde”) at the examination office.

The deadline for submission is 12 months after your defense.

Congratulations, you are done!