Templates for the PhD-Procedure

• Application to the List of PhD-students
  For this application, the following documents/steps are necessary. See also Section 5 of the 'Promotionsordnung'.
  
  
  • An application letter addressed to the head of the PhD-commission. Download a template here. Apart from several serious and important declarations, this letter has to contain
    • the (preliminary) title of your PhD-thesis;
    • the name of your advisor. If you don't know who this is, ask Franz. ;-)
    • the language of your thesis (German or English);
    • the desired academic title (Dr.-Ing. or Dr. rer. nat.);
    • your name, your address and other contact information;
    • a tabular CV; and
    • a list of all your publications;
    
    
  • a letter by your supervisor to the current head of the PhD-commission declaring his intention to supervise you. Download a template here;
    
    
  • an officially verified copy of your Diploma certificate or Master certificate. If applicable, both the certificate (Diplomurkunde) and the document stating your grades (Diplomzeugnis) are required.
    
    
  • Finally, you have to have a clearance certificate (polizeiliches Führungszeugnis) sent to the Computer Science Faculty. To this end, take your Personalausweis/ID-card/passport and go to your Einwohnermeldeamt/Bürgerbüro/Foreign Office and ask for a 'Führungszeugnis Belegart O'. Note: (1) you will be asked for an address to send the document to. Give the address 'Technische Universität Dresden \\ Fakultät Informatik \\ 01062 Dresden'. (2) This thing costs 13 Euros (as of Feb, 2006).
  
  Some advice regarding the M-obstacle. Print your application letter double-sided, don't waste space on half-empty pages, and add a second signature at the end of the document at the bottom of the last page.
  
  As a result of this application, you will receive by mail a confirmation of your admission to the List of PhD-students. Keep this confirmation for the following step. After writing up your thesis, you have to apply to formally open your PhD-proceedure.
  
  
• Application to open the PhD-procedure
  For this, you need the following documents/steps. See also Section 6 of the 'Promotionsordnung'.
  
  
  • An even better application letter, again addressed to the head of the PhD-commission. Download a template here. Apart from even more serious and impressive declarations, this letter has to contain
    • the (final) title of your PhD-thesis;
    • the name of your advisor. If you don't know who this is, don't submit! ;-)
    • the language in which you want to deliver your defense and your talks;
    • the desired academic title (Dr.-Ing. or Dr. rer. nat.);
    • a proposal of three different talks not connected to your PhD research for the 'scientific talk' part of your PhD examination. For each of the three talks, you have to provide a title and a short abstract of about 5 lines.
    • the three referees who will review your thesis. For each of them, you have to submit the name with all academic titles and complete contact information (don't forget email addresses). Your first referee is your supervisor.
    • your name, your (updated) address and other contact information;
    • an (updated) tabular CV; and
    • an (updated) list of all your publications.
    
    
  • again, you need a clearance certificate that is sent to the Faculty by the Einwohnermeldeamt/Bürgerbüro/Foreign Office. See above how to get this;
    
    
  • a PhD-thesis, this is only fair ;-). More precisely, you need to submit 5 copies of your thesis in softcover or hardcover binding (no ring binding). The title page of your thesis must contain certain information. Download a template here. The title page has to contain
    • the title of your thesis;
    • the word 'Dissertation';
    • the desired academic title;
    • the name of the faculty to which you submit;
    • your name, birthday, and birthplace;
    • the name of your advisor; and
    • place and date (month and year suffice) of submission;
    
    
  • a short summary of your PhD-thesis. This should not exceed 10-15 pages and should contain a readable introduction and a description of the new contributions of your thesis. You have to submit 15 copies of this, again hardcover or softcover binding (but no ring binding). The title page of this summary is identical to the title page of the thesis, only the word 'Dissertation' is replaced by 'Kurzfassung'. Download a template here.
    
    
  • your confirmation of admission to the List of PhD-Students. Note that, usually, this is not necessary because the relevant information has been kept.
  
  Again, in order to master the M-obstacle, print double sided and don't forget an additional signature at the end of your application document. Also note that it is no problem to alter the title of your thesis as long as your theses, your short summaries, and your application letter use the same title.
  
  If your application is accepted, you receive by mail a confirmation of the formal opening of your PhD-proceedings, including the surprising news that your thesis has been sent just to the persons you mentioned in your application letter. Your application could be rejected in case one of the three talk proposals is found insufficient. In this case, you will be contacted by email and asked to supply different topics--but this does not delay the overall procedure.