Promotion at the Charité
A promotion in imaging sciences at the Charité is possible. If you are not a medical doctor, there are in principle 2 different types of degree available at the Charité:
- PhD
- Dr. rer. medic.
A Dr. rer. nat. degree is not possible at the Charité, this is possible at the TU or FU. The requirements for a PhD degree are more similar to the international standards for a PhD and are higher than those required for a Dr. rer. medic. degree. For all BIOQIC PhD students, we request the higher standards of the PhD degree (see details at the end of this document). However, since the new promotion rules will be introduced only in the Wintersemester, you will first have to register as Dr. rer. medic. which you later have to change into a PhD.
In order to start your promotion at the Charité, you have to register your promotion as soon as possible at the promotion office (Campus Virchow-Klinikum, Promotionsbüro, Augustenburger Platz 1) of the Charité. For this, you need to fill the registration form (https://promotion.charite.de/fileadmin/user_upload/microsites/sonstige/promotion/Neue_PO/Promotionsvereinbarung_eng_NEU_3-12-2012.pdf) together with your doctoral supervisor. You can read more information on the website below:
https://promotion.charite.de/en/thesis/thesis/application/
Once you are registered, you are officially entitled to start your research work. When you are registered, you can choose whether you matriculate as a PhD student at the Charité or not. It is not obligatory and you need to pay fees but there are several advantages such as a discount on the food in the mensa and a pass to use public transportation.
Matriculation:
This process is dependent on whether you have studied before at the Charité or not and you can find the information and form on the website below:
https://www.charite.de/en/studies/applications/doctoral_degrees/
On the form you find information on what you need to bring with you to the matriculation office, which is at the Campus Mitte, Hannoversche Staße 19. If you are from outside the EU, you need to show also your residence permit where it is stated that you are in Germany for the purpose of promotion (‘Aufenthaltstitel mit Promotionszweck’).
Promotion at the TU
If your supervisor is working at the TU. In principle, the procedure is similar to that of the Charité but you will obtain a Dr. rer. nat. title. You have to register your promotion (http://www.naturwissenschaften.tu-berlin.de/fileadmin/f2/Forschung/Absicht_englisch.pdf)
You can find all information about the promotion procedure at the TU on their website: http://www.naturwissenschaften.tu-berlin.de/menue/research/doctoral_research/parameter/en/
Promotion at the FU
Dr. rer. nat. or PhD title is possible if your supervisor is working at the FU.
http://www.fu-berlin.de/en/studium/studienangebot/promotion/index.html
Requirements for a PhD at BIOQIC
Once you are approaching the end of your PhD period (usually after three years), you can request your promotion. For this, it is important to keep the requirements in mind from the very beginning of your PhD.
First of all, three supervisors are needed: one main supervisor and two additional supervisors. Since we adhere to the highest standards for all of the BIOQIC students, the PhD dissertation should consist of at least 3 publications in peer-reviewed journals or for publication accepted manuscripts all with first-authorship. The thesis should be in the form of a cumulative dissertation, meaning that it consists of the publications (in English) with an additional section (‘Manteltext’) including introduction and discussion as well as a materials & methods, results and discussion section (total length of text should be 5000-10.000 words), this should be after the cover of your thesis. The ‘Manteltext’ should include no more than 40 references. There is no rule on the size of the thesis. A summary in German and English has to be supplied as well. Your thesis will count for 150 ECTS (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System) and you need to gather an additional 30 ECTS by attending seminars, courses, workshops etc. 1 ECTS represents 30 hours of study/education, including preparations and processing. The ECTS points should consist of 4 different themes, which are: Basic curriculum (GSP, statistics, critical reading, literature search, citation etc.) ≥ 5 ECTS, research methods ≥ 5 ECTS, scientific education and science communication (conferences, symposia, presentations etc.) ≥ 2 ECTS (≥ 1 from science communication, max. 5), and personal skills (journal clubs, leadership, time management etc.) ≤ 5 ECTS. Your participation in seminars and courses and your gathering of ECTS points will be registered and monitored by us! You will get a certificate of attendance after each seminar/lecture/workshop so keep those with you for your own administration! The BIOQIC entry block seminars already cover a lot of the ECTS points and our organized BIOQIC continuous seminars and the BIOQIC day will also be included, but we will keep you posted on additional seminars/workshops.