Doctorates

The doctoral regulations are the legal basis for doctorates at the MIN Faculty.

The current doctoral regulations are valid for doctoral students admitted since October 1^st, 2019.

• Doctoral Regulations (2018)   ENGLISH Translation here!

The following expiring doctoral regulations are valid for doctoral students who received their admission before October 1^st, 2019.

• Doctoral Regulations (2010)

Interested in switching to the new regulation?

If you were admitted before October 1^st, 2019, you can continue your doctoral procedure according to the regulations of the MIN Faculty Doctoral Regulations (2018) upon joint application with your supervisors.

You can find more information about switching the doctoral regulations here.

Please note that according to the MIN-PromO (2018) the supervision is usually done by a scientist according to §3 a), i.e. university lecturer, senior professors and habilitated members of the MIN. If necessary, doctoral scientists are to be confirmed as co-supervisors after the change of regulation.

Decisions in regards to the applications of doctorates in Earth System Sciences are made by the Subject Doctoral Committee (Fach-Promotionsausschuss/FPA):

Fach-Promotionsausschuss (Period: October 2022 - September 2023)

You will find the dates and deadlines for the meetings here.

Also you will find the english translation of the Doctoral Degree Regulations of the MIN Faculty for better understanding here .

Please note:

• Applications for the Doctoral Committee an den Fachpromotionsausschuss must be complete (including all signatures and additional documents!) and handed in by the 'Deadline' to be dealt with at the upcoming meeting.
• Please upload your completed application for admission or opening the doctorate at DOCATA as described on this page.
• All other applications (e.g. extension requests) are to be sent digitally as pdf via email to promotion.geo"AT"uni-hamburg.de .

Are you planning your doctorate with an institutional cooperation? Look here for information on research foci or with which non-university institutions you can do your doctorate in cooperation with the University of Hamburg.

• Alfred-Wegener-Institut für Polar- und Meeresforschung (AWI)
• Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, Zentrum für Material- und Küstenforschung (Hereon)
• Max-Planck-Institut für Meteorologie (MPI)

Do you want to participate in a structured doctoral program? Under the following link of the MIN doctoral portal, you can inform yourself about the different cooperation programs.

• IMPRS on Earth System Modelling
• Lothar Collatz School for Computing in Science/GrK 2583 Modeling, Simulation and Optimization of Fluid Dynamic Applications
• School of Integrated Climate System Sciences (SICSS)
• GrK 2530 Biota-mediated effects on Carbon cycling in Estuaries (BiCEst)
   

A change from an individual doctorate to a structured doctorate is possible. If you want to change from an individual doctorate to a structured doctorate program after admission to the doctorate, please indicate this to us.

The notification of a change to a structured doctoral program is done at the study office. Please use the following form (PDF) for this purpose.

According to §7 of the Doctoral Regulations, the dissertation can be submitted either as a thesis containing a self-contained account of the research work and its results (§7 para. 2a; 'monograph'), or as a cumulative dissertation (§7 para. 2b).

The Doctoral Committee on Earth System Sciences provides the following guidance (this is a translation for information only. Please refer to the german site):

• The high quality standards of the written doctoral thesis independent, in-depth scientific work and an advance of scientific knowledge with noteworthy results worthy of publication, cf. §7 para. 1) apply independently of the formal requirements for the thesis.
• The responsibility for following and complying with all regulations in §7 of the MIN doctoral regulations as well as these notes lies with the doctoral candidates, the direct supervisors of the doctoral thesis as well as the supervisory committee according to §6, para. 2 of the doctoral regulations. The consultation of the candidates with regard to the advantages and disadvantages of both forms of dissertation should already begin when the supervision agreement is drawn up.  
• A cumulative dissertation, which must be given an overall title, consists of a linking text in addition to the individual papers (articles in peer-reviewed journals or books already published, submitted, or intended for submission). This linking text should contain the research context, the state of knowledge, and the research questions, and should interpret, evaluate, and discuss the individual papers included in the cumulative dissertation in an overarching manner (§7, para. 2). This linking text should also be comprehensible outside the student's own field of research.
• The doctoral candidate is obliged to explain his or her part in the conception, execution and report writing in detail (§7 para. 3). The dissertation should show which parts have already been published where or are planned for publication.

Resolution of the Subject Doctoral Committee of 22.08.2018

Are you aiming for a joint doctorate procedure according to §17 of the MIN-PromO (2018)? Please follow the instructions via the fact sheet, which differ depending on your home university (MIN/University of Hamburg or University of Melbourne).

Please ensure that you meet the admission requirements at both universities before applying for admission to the doctoral program as part of the joint doctoral program between MIN / UHH and UoM.

Attention: The University of Melbourne has a deadline for signing the individual agreement (Graduate Research Agreement) of 3 months after admission there.

For admission to the doctoral program your application needs to be passed by the Doctoral Committee. The Doctoral Studies-Team at the Office of Earth System Sciences provides administrative support.

We only process applications for admission electronically! Application documents in paper form are not requested, but also not accepted!

The following application documents must be prepared in electronic form for the online application for admission to doctoral procedures and submitted compulsorily as part of the online application:

• Copies of your degree certificates (e.g. bachelor’s and master’s degree): certificate of academic degree, transcript of records, diploma supplement (if issued and already available)^{1
  1}If your degree certificates are issued in another language than German or English, please also submit a certified translation (in German or English) of your degree certificates.

• Completed and fully signed supervision agreement: Please use this form only.
• Copy of certificate of higher education entrance eligibility (secondary school leaving certificate: dt. Abitur/Reifezeugnis)
• Completed and fully signed research project outline: Please use this form only.
• Copy of identification document (e.g. ID card, passport, visa)
• Curriculum vitae and if available, publication list
• Only if applicable: Statement attesting that you have previously applied for a doctorate at another higher education institution, in another faculty of University of Hamburg or in another department of the MIN Faculty of University of Hamburg (including details on the application).

• Only for candidates with international degrees: Completed comparability form²:
  ²Suggestion of Equivalency:
  Please have your supervisor confirm and explain (ideally as a pdf via email) the equivalence of your Bachelor's (180 ECTS) and Master's (120 ECTS) degrees, especially regarding your theses and the conversion of credit points. If you do not have sufficient ECTS, admission is possible under the condition that you complete the missing credits until the completion of your dissertation. For this purpose, please obtain course or module proposals via your supervisor.

The online application is done through Docata-MIN and includes two sections:

Section 1

1. Register in Docata-MIN: Create user account and set password
2. Log in to Docata-MIN with the login data of the user account and fill in the online application for admission to doctoral procedures.
3. Complete the first section of the online application and download the PDF application file Application for admission to doctoral procedures: tick the applicable declarations in the PDF application file and sign the Application for admission to doctoral procedures yourself and having it signed by the other persons listed in the application³.
   ³Scanned and electronic signatures are allowed.

Section 2

Log in to Docata-MIN and complete the second section of the online application:

• upload the fully signed Application for admission to doctoral procedures and the remaining application documents (see above) in ONE PDF file (max. size 30 MB) to Docata-MIN and submit via Docata-MIN.

Please note: Only complete applications can be processed. If application documents of the mandatory documents listed above are missing or signatures are missing, the application cannot be submitted to the Subject Doctoral Committee. In such a case you will be informed by us and you will have to repeat the online application (section 1 and/or section 2)! To avoid this, we ask you to submit the above-mentioned application documents completely and signed within the online application.

In the FAQ for the online application for admission to doctoral procedures linked here, you will find all information about the application process with screenshots for all sections. Please make sure to read them before you start the online application process.

Please take notice of the dates for the Doctoral Committee Meeting.

For the "joint application" e.g. University of Hamburg and University of Melbourne please have a look at "+Joint Application".

General Information: The admission is valid for four years. Within this time, the dissertation should be submitted and the disputation held. Interruptions of the doctoral process must be reported to the study office. An extension of the admission period must be applied for in due time. Further information can be found under the item "+Extension".

After having been admitted to the doctorate by the doctoral committee, you have to enroll for the doctoral degree program "Erdsystemwissenschaften (Promotion)" the latest for the semester following the admission until the date of your defense. Further information can be found here.

Doctoral students cannot register for events themselves through STiNE. Please contact us directly via email for registration.

If you only want to register as a listener, please tell us your matriculation number and the number and title of the event.

If you want to collect ECTS credits and have to complete coursework or examinations, please fill out the form (PDF) for subsequent registration, have it signed by the lecturer(s) and send it to us by email.

Please also note that the Office of Student Affairs can only accept registrations for courses of the Department of Earth System Sciences (LV numbers begin with 63-). Please send your registration requests for courses of other departments directly to the responsible study office.

The admission is valid for four years. Within this period, the dissertation should be submitted and the disputation held. The admission period may be extended. A period of approximately three months for the examination procedure (from submission of the dissertation to the conduct of the oral defense) must be planned and taken into account.

The application for extension of admission to doctoral procedures must be submitted at the latest three months prior to the expiry of the admission period.

The application (please use the form below) is submitted by the doctoral candidate and must also be supported and signed by the supervisors (electronic and scanned signatures are allowed). It is decided by the subject doctoral committee.

• Form for extension of admission perion (PDF)

In case of an extension of the admission period, which is requested before the submission of the dissertation for evaluation, a concrete time schedule/work plan must be inserted here (for length: recommendation approx. ½ page). In the time schedule/work plan, the doctoral candidate lists in a time grid (e.g. from 1 - 3 months) the activities and work to be done until completion of the doctoral examination procedure (i.e. oral defense).

Please note:
The essential goal of this application is to stimulate a discussion about the dissertation process between doctoral candidates and their supervisors. The doctoral committees of the MIN Faculty and the MIN Faculty would like to support doctoral candidates in achieving the qualification goal (doctorate) in a reasonable time. Applications for extension of the above form, which are jointly supported by the doctoral candidates and supervisors, are usually decided positively.

• Applications for further extensions must refer to the previous applications.

Please send your filled in and fully signed application to promotion.geo"AT"uni-hamburg.de

We hope that you will successfully complete your doctorate.

If you still decide on an early termination, please give us a note and fill out this form:

• termination of the doctorate (PDF)

Please note:
Since we process doctoral procedures electronically, for data protection reasons we ask you to contact us for any enquiries after admission via

• a uni-hamburg email address
• or a studium.uni-hamburg.de email address
• or an email address of the email domains chemie.uni-hamburg.de, informatik.uni-hamburg.de, zbh.uni-hamburg.de, hs.uni-hamburg.de, physik.uni-hamburg.de, physnet.uni-hamburg.de, uke.de or zmnh.uni-hamburg.de

to communicate and submit the above mentioned documents.

The MIN faculty's Graduate Center has a range of support offers for your doctorate. Further information can be found here.

One example is the Individual Development Plan (IDP) which helps you take charge of your professional development and facilitates the step into your post-PhD career.

Please note that the submission of your dissertation, as well as the date of your disputation must be within your admission period and you must also be enrolled. If your admission period is about to expire, please apply for an extension. Further information can be found under "+Extension...".

If the submission of the dissertation and the date of the disputation are to be carried out in the same semester, the following meetings of the subject doctoral committee are recommended as the last possible submission date:

For a completion of the doctoral process

• within the winter semester: the last meeting before the turn of the year
• during the summer semester: the meeting in June or July.

The decisive factor is the time it usually takes from submission of the dissertation to the date of the disputation:

The date of the disputation is the day on which you complete your doctoral studies.

When planning your schedule, please note that the disputation date should be no earlier than nine weeks after the FPA deadline and within your admission period. However, timely submission does not guarantee a date for the disputation within the above time frame.

As a general rule, we recommend that you allow approximately 3 months (unless special circumstances arise) between submission/delivery of the dissertation and the disputation, so that the processes and procedures prescribed by the doctoral regulations can be carried out.

Further important information can be found under the item "+Disputation..."

We only process applications to open the doctorate proceedings (i.e. submission of the dissertation for evaluation) electronically! Application documents in paper form (except 1 examination copy of the dissertation in paper form for archiving purposes) are not requested, but also not accepted!

The following application documents must be prepared in electronic form for the online application to open the doctorate proceedings and submitted compulsorily as part of the online application:

• Current enrollment certificate (= semester certificate)

• Only if not already submitted during the application process for admission to doctoral procedures:
  Copy of identification document (e.g. ID card, passport, visa)^{1
  1}Please note: If you have changed your name after admission to doctoral procedures (e.g. due to marriage) and have not yet reported the name change to us (at the Academic Office), attach the relevant proof of the name change (e.g. marriage certificate) to the rest of the application documents.

• Only if applicable: Proof of interruptions of your doctorate

The online application is done through Docata-MIN and includes two sections:

Section 1

1. Log in to Docata-MIN with the login data of your user account (see FAQ for further information) and fill in the online application to open the doctorate proceedings.

2. Complete the first section of the online application and download the PDF application file Application to open the doctorate proceedings:
   tick the applicable declarations in the PDF application file and sign the Application to open the doctorate proceedings by yourself and having it signed by the other persons/entities listed in the application².
   ²Scanned and electronic signatures are allowed. Apart from your own signature, the pdf must be signed by your supervisor and if appliccable by your graduate program.
   

Section 2

Log in to Docata-MIN and complete the second section of the online application:
upload the fully signed Application to open the doctorate proceedings and the remaining application documents (see above) in ONE PDF file (max. size 10 MB) to Docata-MIN and submit via Docata-MIN.

Please note:
Only complete applications can be processed. If application documents of the mandatory documents listed above are missing or signatures are missing, the application cannot be submitted to the Subject Doctoral Committee. In such a case you will be informed by us and you will have to repeat the online application (section 1 and/or section 2)! To avoid this, we ask you to submit the above-mentioned application documents completely and signed via the online application. Please do not forget to submit 1 examination copy of the dissertation in paper form for archiving purposes with us and please note the following about the dissertation (doctoral thesis) you are submitting for evaluation with this application:

• Only one printed bound copy of the dissertation must be submitted for archiving to us, the responsible Academic Office (e.g. by mail or hand in at the big letter box next to the elevators on the 12^th floor). No further hard/paper copies of the dissertation need to be submitted to us at the Academic Office.
• Both the printed bound copy of the dissertation and the dissertation submitted in electronic form (via the Docata upload) must contain the declaration upon oath signed by the doctoral candidate.

In the FAQ for the online application to open the doctorate proceedings linked here, you will find all information about the application process with screenshots for all sections. Please make sure to read them before you start the online application process.

You will find additional information (cover page, declaration upon oath) in regards to the thesis at "+Dissertation"

For consideration: Only theses and complete applications meeting the Deadline and the regulations, will be taken to the next meeting of the Doctoral Committee (FPA). Please get in touch with us in time if you have questions!

Please announce your intention about four weeks before submitting your dissertation. Questions can be clarified at this time.

The application to open the doctorate proceedings is explained in the +section above. Please also check the FAQ  before you apply.

Layout/Cover Page
Information about the layout of the cover page of the doctoral thesis is available here.

Members of the commission?
In the application you have to propose five members of the examination commission. Please note the following:
- At least one of the reviewers of the doctoral thesis has to be a professor of the department. Normally, the supervisors are to be nominated here.
-At least three of the five members of the examination commission have to be professors of the Department Earth Sciences/MIN Faculty.
-No more than three of the five members of the examination commission should come from your doctoral subject.
-We expect that you have asked the suggested members and that they agreed on being nominated as examination commission members

Declaration upon oath
Both the dissertation submitted in electronic form (via the Docata upload) and the printed bound copy of the dissertation submitted to the responsible Academic Office for archiving must contain your signed declaration upon oath:

"Hiermit erkläre ich an Eides statt, dass ich die vorliegende Dissertationsschrift selbst verfasst und keine anderen als die angegebenen Quellen und Hilfsmittel benutzt habe.
Sofern im Zuge der Erstellung der vorliegenden Dissertationsschrift generative Künstliche Intelligenz (gKI) basierte elektronische Hilfsmittel verwendet wurden, versichere ich, dass meine eigene Leistung im Vordergrund stand und dass eine vollständige Dokumentation aller verwendeten Hilfsmittel gemäß der Guten wissenschaftlichen Praxis vorliegt. Ich trage die Verantwortung für eventuell durch die gKI generierte fehlerhafte oder verzerrte Inhalte, fehlerhafte Referenzen, Verstöße gegen das Datenschutz- und Urheberrecht oder Plagiate.

Ort, Datum
Unterschrift"

"I hereby declare and affirm that this doctoral dissertation is my own work and that I have not used any aids and sources other than those indicated.

If electronic resources based on generative artificial intelligence (gAI) were used in the course of writing this dissertation, I confirm that my own work was the main and value-adding contribution and that complete documentation of all resources used is available in accordance with good scientific practice. I am responsible for any erroneous or distorted content, incorrect references, violations of data protection and copyright law or plagiarism that may have been generated by the gAI.

City, date
Signature"

Please add this affirmation at the end of the printed copy as well as the file and sign both.^2
2Scanned and electronic signatures are allowed.

How many copies?
You must submit only one printed bound copy of the dissertation to the responsible Academic Office for archiving (e.g. by mail or drop off at the letter box on the 12^th floor). No further hard/paper copies of the dissertation need to be submitted. The printed dissertation has to have a durable and stable binding. Any form of spiral binding or slide binders will not be accepted.

Upon request, you will provide the appointed members of the examination commission and the reviewers (assessors) each with an additional bound hard copy of the dissertation. Agreements are to be made bilaterally between you and the appointed reviewers (assessors) and examination commission members; the responsible Academic Office is not involved in this coordination/agreement process. This bound hard copy of the dissertation must contain a declaration written and signed by you in which you declare that the copy and the dissertation submitted in electronic form (via the Docata upload) and the printed bound copy of the dissertation submitted to the responsible Academic Office for archiving are identical.

Please be aware that you are still within your admission period and enroled at the University of Hamburg until the date of your oral defense. To extend your admission please refer to "+Extension" and contact us.

The organisation of the oral defense date lies in the hand of the candidate. Please contact the chair of the examination commission to arrange a date for the oral defense or, if applicable, to confirm the date already scheduled.

After coordinating/confirming the oral defense date, fill out the form which will be sent to you after your dissertation was graded by the committee.

Please submit the form to us via email minimum 15 Days ahead of the defense date and after you were informed about the grading of your dissertation!

ATTENTION! Please mind that the following must be at hand of the academic office before the defense date can be confirmed:

• Registration form (see above)
• all reviews
• Acceptance and grading of your dissertation via the examination commission (protocol is uploaded to Docata)

Currently (valid from Oct 1^st, 2022) oral defenses may be conducted in the MIN Faculty as follows:

• Mainly in presence. Please see instruction sheet for conducting oral defenses-MIN-UHH (PDF, accessible) for further information and exceptions.

For a hybrid Disputation (partially digitally) we suggest the following rooms:

• Bu55 Raum 1528 (Frau Ehrenreich, MI)
• Bu55 Raum 740 oder 838 (Herr Schiller, IfG)
• Bu53 Raum 22/23 (Frau Terrassa, IfM)

Please contact the Institutes directly for booking or request via STiNE.

Please make sure the link to the online defense is provided in time for the invitation (via email to us 15 days ahead of the defense date).

For defense dates in presence these slots are available at the departement of Earth System Sciences:

• Tuesdays 2 - 4 pm (Geomatikum Hörsaal 3)
• Wednesdays  4-6 pm (Geomatikum Hörsaal 4) and 2-4 pm (Geomatikum Hörsaal 3)

If you want to book one of these slots above please send your specific request to promotion.geo"AT"uni-hamburg.de Other slots may be available via Hörsaalbuchung on STiNE. Please book this on your own.

You will receive a preliminary certificate after completing your oral defense. Within a year after completion of the doctorate, the doctoral thesis has to be published. The publication of your dissertation is a requirement for your doctoral degree certificate to be issued.

The publication of the dissertation has to be accomplished within one year following completion of doctoral studies. The departmental doctoral committee can authorize an extension of the period of publication on informal request by the doctoral student with statement of reasons (see § 14 of the Doctoral Degree Regulations MIN Faculty (2018)). The request has to be sent/submitted to the Academic Office.

You will receive a docket for the publication of the dissertation via email with the invitation to your oral defense. You will need to follow a few steps:

1. Approval of the dissertation for publication
On the docket, you can either sign that you are publishing the dissertation in the version in which it was handed in and finally evaluated,
OR if you have revised the dissertation, please have the approval for publication confirmed on the docket. The person to give approval and sign the docket should be set at the oral defense and usually is the supervisor, reviewer or head of your committee.
2. Publication of the dissertation at the “Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg (Stabi/SUB HH)”*
The faculty doctoral committee recommends the publication as an e-dissertation. For more information visit SUB HH here. The SUB HH will confirm your publication via Email.
3. Submission of the copy of the dissertation intended for publication*
A copy of your dissertation must go to the department library. The library will confirm this on the docket.
4. Submission of the signed docket to the Academic Office
Please send a scan or photo via email and use the letter-box next to the elevator on the 12th floor to hand in the signed docket.

NEW: Since December 2021, apart from the printed dissertation that needed to be handed in at the opening of your doctorate (please do so now, if not handed in yet), no extra copy of the published dissertation must be submitted to the Academic Office anymore.

Usually you receive your doctoral degree certificate within 4 weeks to 3 months subsequent to the receipt of the notification of fulfilling the publication obligations and submission of the docket 'Laufzettel'. Usually the certificates are send via post 'Einschreiben'. Please inform us immediately if you wish to receive your documents at another address than the one stated at DOCATA.

* Ad 2. and 3. Number of copies of the dissertation intended for publication:

**If the cumulative dissertation is published as an e-dissertation, 2 printed copies are to be handed in to the
Stabi. If it is published as a print medium, 6 printed copies are to be handed in to the Stabi.

Information and details of Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg Carl von Ossietzky (Stabi/ SUBHH)

Tel.: 040-42838-2236 | Mail: diss"AT"sub.uni-hamburg.de | Web: http://www.sub.uni-hamburg.de

• E-Dissertationen der UHH
• FAQ

Please get in touch with them if you have questions regarding the publication and handing in your copies.