Admission Procedure

• The first step is to submit 3 copies of your doctoral thesis (plus 1 digital version on CD or USB-stick) to the Office of the Doctoral Examination Board.

Please complete the form “Application admission PhD” which can be downloaded from the GEO homepage: Education / Doctorate in Geosciences / Forms and Documents. In addition to an updated curriculum vitae, a list of publications and the statement according to § 4 (1), no. 3 and 4, a certificate of participation in a course on Good Scientific Practice must be submitted (this only applies to doctoral candidates who were accepted from 28th October 2019 onwards).

The following details are required:

• Topic of the thesis,
• Topic of the colloquium (it must distinguish from the thesis’ topic and be more general),
• First reviewer,
• Second reviewer.
• Kindly inform us about contact details including postal address of your external reviewers.

The Office of the Doctoral Examination Board will keep one copy for public display at the University and forward the other two copies to the reviewers who will be requested to complete their reviews within 6 weeks.

• In the reviewing period, please plan your colloquium in agreement with your reviewers and propose date (the earliest possible date can be 5 days after the Doctoral Examination Board meeting), time, and room for the colloquium. Kindly inform us about the members of your examining committee:

It should consist of six persons:

1. First reviewer
2. Second reviewer
3. A professor of the Faculty of Geosciences
4. A further professor or a postdoctoral research fellow
5.  Two other members of the University of Bremen (e. g. non-professorial academic staff),
6.  and among them one student (Bachelor or Master, students of higher semesters)

Substitutes (3 people)

1. One professor of the Faculty of Geosciences
2. One member of the non-professorial academic staff of the University of Bremen
3. One student (Bachelor or Master)

in total 9 people

The members of your examining committee should preferably belong to different research groups and, in particular the positions 1. to 4., should be composed with a view to gender equality. Please submit names and email addresses of your examining committee members by the form “Examining Committee” to the Office of the Doctoral Examination Board (alicja.ostrowski@vw.uni-bremen.de)

10 working days before the next Doctoral Examination Board meeting at the latest.

• Book the lecture hall for the planned date of your colloquium (Angelika Rinkel, phone: 0421/218-65051).

If both reviews and your suggestion for the examining committee members arrive at the Office of the Doctoral Examination Board 10 working days before the next Doctoral Examination Board meeting at the latest, the Board will decide on the admission to the doctoral colloquium. After the Board’s meeting the examining committee members will immediately be invited for the colloquium. The invitation will be posted on the notice board of the GEO building, at the AWI Bremerhaven, and on the GEO homepage.

• The doctoral colloquim takes place as planned.

After the colloquium the examining committee will submit a written report to the Doctoral Examination Board stating whether the doctoral candidate is to receive a doctorate and – if applicable – the grade. Sometimes the examining committee decides that the thesis requires revision.
In the following Doctoral Examination Board meeting, it will be decided on the examining committee’s proposal (provided that no revision of the doctoral thesis is required). Afterwards, you will receive a written confirmation of your graduation.

• The doctoral certificate will be issued when the thesis is published or when its publication is guaranteed.

Please submit your published thesis to the Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek (University’s library). (For online publication: 1 copy, see homepage www.suub.uni-bremen.de). The library’s written confirmation on the duly submitted doctoral thesis and 1 copy of the thesis (3 copies, if a revision of the thesis had been required) must be submitted to the office of the Doctoral Examination Board. The title “doctor” can only be held after receipt of the doctoral certificate.