Promotion

How to become a doctoral candidate at Faculty of Informatics:

I. Find a thesis advisor

Our faculty does not offer a doctorate program. You will do your research within the context of research projects at one of the chairs of Faculty of Informatics. Therefore, the first major step is to find a professor who accepts you as a doctoral candidate.

II. Overview of the admission process

You have to fulfill formal requirements to be accepted as doctoral candidate. These are:

You have to hold a master degree or a diplom with a above average grade.
You have to prove sufficient knowledge in computer science.

First, you apply for becoming a doctoral candidate at the deanery (Section 3). Thus, you get on the list of doctoral candidates (Promotionsliste) with the status registered (angemeldet).

Second, when you fulfill the first requirement (Section 4), you will be accepted (aufgenommen) as doctoral candidate. Now you CAN enrol at the enrolment office as a program student, if you need the enrollment due to your scholarship.

Third, after you proved the required knowledge, you will be admitted (zugelassen), you can enrol into the regular doctorate program, and you merely have to write and defend your thesis.

III. Apply for becoming a doctoral candidate

Fill in the application form and take it with the following documents to Mrs. Kalter at the Informatics deanery. Required documents:

Two copies of your master or diplom certificate

Keep electronic copies of these documents for Step V.

IV. Nostrification of a foreign degree

If you graduated from a foreign university you also have to request the nostrification of your degree at the enrolment office (Immatrikulationsamt). Fill in the nostrification request form and take it with the following documents to the enrolment office, Arcisstr. 21, Zimmer 0021 - 0027, 80333 München.

Required documents:

An officially certified copy of the foreign degree certificate
An officially certified copy of a document provided by the foreign higher education establishment stating the subjects and grades of the examinations taken as a requirement leading to the degree; this document does not need to be provided if these details are contained in the degree certificate.
An abstract of the thesis in English or German.
Resume with details of education (schools, courses of study, etc.)

If the documents stated in 1.–4. are not in English or German, a translation by a sworn translator is additionally required.

Keep electronic copies of these documents for Step V.

V. Enrol as a student at TU München

After your degree was accepted, you will receive a letter of acceptance from the dean of the faculty. This letter of acceptance is sufficient to get a visa as a doctoral candidate.

With this letter you CAN enrol at the enrolment office of TUM as a program student, if you need the enrolment due to your scholarship. Please fill in the Application for Admission, found via portal.mytum.de/studium/bewerbung/incomings/bewerbung_international and send it to Angelika Reiser. You may be enroled at most for three semesters; you do not have to pay tuition fees, only the student union fee (Studentenwerksbeitrag), currently 42 Euro per semester.

VI. International Office (IO)

The International Office offers general information for doctoral candidates and also a mentoring program for international students in doctoral studies:
portal.mytum.de/international/doktoranden.

The person in charge of this program is

Olivia Schmid
Arcisstr. 19, Room 001
Tel.: +49 89 289 25448
Fax: +49 89 289 25474
E-Mail: schmido@zv.tum.de
WWW: International Office

VII. Proving your knowledge in Informatics

If you do not hold a master degree or diplom in computer science, information systems (Wirtschaftsinformatik), or bio informatics from a German university, you might have to prove a certain amount of knowledge in Informatics. In this case, you will be contacted by Mrs. Maschmeyer from the Student Service Center.

The following requirements, defined by the faculty of informatics, apply:

You have to prove knowledge in the areas covered by the following lectures:
1. Introduction to Informatics I (IN0001) and Introduction to Informatics II (IN0003).
2. Discrete Structures (IN0015) or Fundamentals of Algorithms and Data Structures (IN0007) or Operations Research
You have to prove in depth knowledge in one of the following specialization areas:
Databases
Software Engineering
Networks
Distributed Systems
Information Systems
Programming Labs
Theory
Computer Architecture

Information about the content of the courses (IN0001, IN0003, IN007, IN00015, and others) at TUM can be found in the module catalogue.

Fill in the computer science knowledge form. Give as much information as you can about your lectures and/or work experience. This will be evaluated by a committee of professors. If they will not find it to be sufficient, you might have to pass additional exams.

If this section applies to you, collect all the following documents in a single PDF file and send it per Email to Mrs. Maschmeyer (maschmey@in.tum.de):

Application form and required documents,
Nostrification request form and required documents,
Computer science knowledge form and any supportive documents.

You must take required exams within one year, which can be done in parallel to your work on your thesis.

VIII. Admission

Finally, you will receive a letter from the deanery stating that you have been admitted (zugelassen). With that you can enrol into the regular doctorate program. All in all you may be enroled at most for three years; you do not have to pay tuition fees, only the student union fee (Studentenwerksbeitrag), currently 42 Euro and administration fees of currently 50 Euro per semester.

IX. Helpful links

X. Comments

If you have any comments or suggestions for improving this page, please send email to Michael Gerndt.