Doctoral Study

Supervisor

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Letter of admission

To request a letter of admission, please complete the Application for Admission to Doctoral Studies (PDF, 146 KB) and ask your supervisor to confirm supervision using the form Confirmation of Supervision (PDF, 96 KB).

• In order to ensure timely processing of applications, please send us your complete application at least 2 weeks before the start of the semester.

• Admission as a doctoral student in the Dean's Office is mandatory. If you also wish to enrol, the Student Office or the International Office is responsible for this. After receiving your admission letter, you can contact the responsible colleagues in order to be enrolled. Please note the respective deadlines for submission!

• According to the doctoral regulations of 2020, enrolment as a doctoral student is NOT required, but admission to the Dean's Office is REQUIRED.

Those with a German university degree in physics please send us the following documents:

• Master's degree certificate and diploma as a certified copy (at least with the overall grade "good")
• Form Confirmation of Supervision (PDF, 96 KB)
• Application for Admission to Doctoral Studies (PDF, 146 KB)
• Signed curriculum vitae
• Identity card or passport as a certified copy

Admission will be sent back by regular post to your private address.

Those with a foreign or non-specialized university degree please send us the following documents:

• Bachelor's degree certificate, diploma and final transcript of records as a certified copy
• Master's degree certificate, diploma and final transcript of records as a certified copy
• Form for Confirmation of Supervision (PDF, 96 KB)
• Application form for Application for Admission to Doctoral Studies (PDF, 146 KB)
• Signed curriculum vitae
• Identity card or passport as a certified copy

Your eligibility for doctoral studies will be checked. You will be informed as soon as the confirmation is issued. Provided your documents are complete, your letter of admission will also be returned to you by mail to your private address. You can then use this letter to contact the responsible persons at the Office of the University Registrar or the International Office.

Please do not send originals by mail, but only certified copies of your Master's degree certificate and diploma as well as your identity card.

For more information on certified copies, please see the FAQs.

As an alternative to the certified copy, you are welcome to ask your departmental secretary to show your originals there. A copy can then be made with the stamp of the secretary's office and the name, date and signature of the person to whom the originals were submitted.

Admission to doctoral studies is open to outstanding students with a Bachelor’s degree.

Prerequisites for this are

• an excellent bachelor's degree with a grade of "very good"
• or a placement among the top 10% in the respective year,
• a mentor who will advise you

Applicants with degrees earned outside the EU must submit GRE Subject Test scores in physics or mathematics.

Proceed as follows:

• In addition to the Application for Doctoral Admission (PDF, 146 KB), please submit this form (PDF, 128 KB)(currently only available in German) to the Dean's Office along with the documents requested therein.

• Ask your mentor to send the mentor commitment (PDF, 98 KB) to the Dean's Office.

After successful examination, you will be admitted to the respective Master's program of the Faculty of Physics.

• You then have to enroll in the respective master's program and successfully complete 60 ECTS of Master courses in the following two semesters with an average grade of at least good (grade ≤ 2.5). Course selection will take place in consultation with your mentor.

• These required achievements have to be proven to the Dean's Office at the end of the two semesters. To do so, present the master's certificates to the examination office and obtain a statement of account.

If you can prove that you have completed the 60 ECTS with an average grade of "good", your mentor can give you a confirmation of supervision for the doctorate.

• Please submit the supervision commitment together with the account statement of the master's achievements to the Dean's Office.

After a successful review, you will be admitted to the doctoral program.

• You can then enroll in the doctoral program.

With the doctoral degree, you do not acquire a master's degree. This may have consequences later on, e.g. on the pay group in case of employment in the public service. A doctorate without a master's degree is therefore not advisable for people who want to stay in Germany. However, if you are pursuing a Master's degree, you should remain enrolled in the Master's program and complete the remaining required coursework.

Information on how to obtain a Master's degree can be found in the FAQs on this page.

The faculty member who gives you the mentoring commitment is not obligated to continue to mentor you and give you a mentoring commitment for the doctoral degree.

With a master's degree in physics from a total of 4 years of education, e.g.

• with a "First Degree Master" or

• with a 3-year Bachelor's degree and a one-year Master's degree ("Integrated Master")

admission is possible under the same conditions as for admission with an excellent Bachelor's degree.

Depending on where you are from and depending on where you obtained your Master degree, the International Office or the Office of the University Registrar is responsible for enrollment as a doctoral student. Please follow the instructions on the information page for enrollment in a doctoral program.

Please note:

• Doctoral studies are not subject to a standard period of study. As a rule, enrollment for the purpose of a doctorate is limited to a maximum of 8 semesters.
• If you are seeking a doctorate via access with an excellent bachelor's degree, you must apply as a master's student. See the information page on application, admission and enrollment.

Please note the following for the submission of your thesis:

• You have to submit eight copies (old doctoral regulations) or seven copies (new doctoral regulations), hard bound in DIN A 4 format. Your doctoral thesis should be preceded by an abstract in German language, included in your thesis.
• The application for admission to the doctoral examination must be completed in full.

• All required documents and documents giving evidence can be found in theApplication for Admission to the Doctoral Examination (new regulations) (PDF, 131 KB) / Application for Admission to the Doctoral Examination (old regulations) (PDF, 134 KB)
  Please read this form carefully in order to ensure that different documents can be issued in due time prior to the admission of your thesis.

• A list containing the suggested members of the Doctoral Examination Committee (PDF, 97 KB) can be submitted previously for revision; it always has to be approved by the Dean.

• We kindly ask you to send us an email to promotion@physik.lmu.de after having submitted your dissertation, informing us thereof. In addition, please send us your abstract as well as your dissertation as two separate PDFs or as a download link.

Please note that the 6 or 5 members of the committee must be from different fields of physics. The proposal list of the doctoral committee may contain only one external member.

A time limit of at least six weeks should be granted between the submission of your thesis and your oral examination, so that all deadlines can be duly met. The submission of both reports to the dean's office is decisive, since according to the doctoral regulations there must be at least 3 weeks until the oral examination. We therefore recommend that you consult with your reviewers in order to plan your oral examination.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact the PhD office by phone or email.

Earning a doctorate with multiple publications?

Cumulative dissertations usually require at least three published and refereed first author publications in renowned journals. Cumulative dissertations must be submitted to the dean by the supervisor prior to submission, indicating the relevant publications. Only when the application has been approved by the dean a cumulative dissertation is possible.

Mixed forms between classical and cumulative dissertation are possible, but require a detailed justification and explanation, with sufficient time before the intended submission date.

In all cases, care must be taken to ensure that the dissertation clearly presents and demonstrates independent scientific achievement.

As a rule, the examination should again take place in presence. The presentation is done on the blackboard.
A remote examination is only an option if there is an external member outside Munich.

If a member of the doctoral committee participates remotely, the requirements of the remote examination apply:

• The presentation will take place on an electronic whiteboard.

• All parties involved in the examination must agree to the procedure described here.

• The examinee and an examiner, ideally the chair of the doctoral committee, meet in person in a room that ensures ample distance between the participants.

• All other commission members can join remotely via suitable video conferencing systems. Suitable and approved according to IT security standards are DFNconf, LRZmeet and in exceptional cases Zoom.

• The examiner who takes the minutes signs them and sends the scan of the minutes by e-mail to the commission chair. The chair prints out the minutes, signs them as well, and sends them to the Dean's Office along with all other doctoral documents.

• The committee chair is responsible for ensuring that these requirements are met, including proper record keeping and submission of these to the Dean's Office.

The date for the doctoral examination

• you set independently in consultation with all members of the doctoral committee.

• Ideally, you will notify the Dean's Office of the date and time of the examination when you submit your dissertation, if the dissertation committee has already been pre-approved.

• To schedule an appointment, please contact your advisor and committee members as usual. If you have any questions, please contact dekanat17@lmu.de

After submitting your dissertation and passing the oral examination, you are almost there - the doctoral title is within reach.

Please note, however, that the interim notification you receive after the oral examination does not yet entitle you to use the doctoral title; designations such as Doctor designatus (Dr. des.) or similar are also not permitted.

According to the doctoral regulations, you acquire the right to use the doctoral title only upon receipt of the certificate. Only after receiving the certificate you may officially use the title Dr. rer. nat.

In order to receive the doctoral certificate for the award of the title "Doctor rerum naturalium", Dr. rer. nat. you must

• first submit six printed and possibly corrected copies of your dissertation to the University's Office of Publications and publish your dissertation electronically (further information can be found here).
• According to the doctoral regulations, the submission must take place within one year after the interim notification has been issued.

• The certificate will be issued automatically after the dissertation has been uploaded electronically and submitted to the University Library.

• As soon as the doctoral certificate is ready for collection at the Dean's Office (approx. 4-6 weeks after submission of your dissertation to the University Library), you will receive a message from the Dean's Office by e-mail and you can collect it from the Dean's Office during normal opening hours.

Dean's Office of the Faculty of Physics

Ms. Merita Shabanaj
promotion@physik.uni-muenchen.de

Ms. Anna-Serena Melo Voigt
promotion@physik.uni-muenchen.de

The office hours can be found here:

Regular office hours for habilitations and doctorates

Postal address of the dean's office of the Faculty of Physics

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Fakultät für Physik
Dekanat
Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1
80539 München

Zentrale Poststelle der LMU (LMU central mail room)

Opening hours:
Monday - Thursday: 07:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Friday: 07:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Central mail room's postal address:
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Zentrale Poststelle der LMU, Zi.Nr. 003
Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1
80539 München

• How can I currently submit my dissertation?

The dissertation can be submitted via post mail or in person. Alternatively, you are welcome to hand it in at the "Zentrale Poststelle der LMU" (central mailroom of the LMU Munich) during its opening hours.

• What do I have to consider when submitting?

Please submit your complete documents including the deposit copies together. As soon as you have submitted your documents, please send us an e-mail to promotion@physik.uni-muenchen.de. With this e-mail, please send us your abstract and a PDF version or a download link of your dissertation.

• How much time must elapse between the submission of the dissertation and the date of the defense?

After complete submission of your dissertation, at least 6 weeks must be planned. Decisive for the scheduling of your defense is the receipt of both reviews in the dean's office. After that, there must be at least 3 weeks left until the date of your defense. Therefore, you are welcome to consult your referees for the planning of your examination date.

• How do I know according to which doctoral examination regulations I will defend my examination?

If you received your doctoral admission before 01.01.2020, you will defend according to the doctoral regulations of April 19, 1993 (old doctoral regulations). If you received your doctoral admission after 01.01.2020, you will defend according to the new doctoral regulations.

• What are the differences between the two doctoral regulations?

One of the most important differences is that according to the new doctoral regulations, there must be one less member on the examination board and the number of obligatory copies is correspondingly reduced by one. In addition, according to the old doctoral regulations, proof of enrollment as a doctoral student for at least 2 semesters must be submitted. This proof is not required under the new doctoral regulations.

• Is it possible to change to the new doctoral regulations?

A change from the old to the new doctoral regulations had to be notified in writing to the Dean's Office by 30.06.2020.

• Will I be employed at a chair directly after admission?

The admission to the doctorate does not say anything about the possibility of employment and about the grouping during the doctorate.

• Where can I get certified copies?

You can have copies of your transcripts certified at your local authority (in Munich at the Kreisverwaltungsreferat, German embassies abroad also certify). Some universities in the USA require certified copies of transcripts in sealed envelopes to be sent directly from LMU when applying. In this case, please bring a fully addressed and stamped envelope along with the original transcript and copies of it to our office. We will then certify and mail the copies.

• How can I obtain a master's degree if I start a doctorate directly after completing my bachelor's degree?

In order to obtain a Master's degree, you must complete the prescribed curriculum in the respective Master's program, i.e. the required lectures etc. and the practical phases as well as writing the Master's thesis. The research results in a master's thesis can serve as a starting point for the doctoral project. However, a dissertation cannot be recognized as a practical phase and master's thesis.You must also apply for the master's degree at the Office of the University Registrar or the International Office. Please note the deadlines.

Examination regulations of the faculty of physics at LMU Munich (starting from 01.01.2020) (PDF, 278 KB)

Examination regulations of the faculty of physics at LMU Munich (superseeded 1993-2019) (PDF, 241 KB)

Application form for Admission to Doctoral Study (PDF, 146 KB)

Confirmation of Supervision (PDF, 96 KB)

Application for Admission to the Doctoral Examination (new regulations) (PDF, 131 KB)

Application for Admission to the Doctoral Examination (old regulations) (PDF, 134 KB)

Examination commitee (PDF, 97 KB)

Mentorate confirmation (PDF, 105 KB)