• Regular dissertation defense dates take place during the lecture period on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 1:00 p.m., 3:00 p.m., or 5:00 p.m.
• The Dean's Office is responsible for organizing the examination committee, consisting of a chair and at least one assessor, as well as booking the room.
• A list of available dates is available at dissertation@maschinenbau.tu-…
• Special examination dates are possible, but must be organized independently by the doctoral candidates with all parties involved (supervisors, co-supervisors, chair, at least one assessor) and in terms of space.
• The defense can take place at the earliest 5 weeks (with the consent of the examiners: 4 weeks) after a meeting of the doctoral committee.
• Once you have arranged an appointment, please send it to dissertation@maschinenbau.tu-…. You will then be given access to a Next.Hessenbox folder for document transfer.

• The fee of €100 must be paid no later than when registering for the doctoral examination.
• Bank details:
• Stadt- und Kreissparkasse Darmstadt
• IBAN: DE36 5085 0150 0000 7043 00
• BIC: HELADEF1DAS
• Purpose: Doctoral fee FB 16, name, cost center 300299, project number 40100191
• A refund is possible if the dissertation is awarded an academic prize. Please submit an informal request and send a PDF to promoffice@maschinenbau.tu-… (including your current address and account details).

• All information on initiating the doctoral procedure (opens in new tab) can be found in the information sheet, and the forms required for initiation can be downloaded opposite.
• After submission, your Application to initiate the doctoral procedure will be discussed at the next meeting of the doctoral committee, and you will receive written feedback.
• Once your doctoral procedure has been approved, the examination committee will have access to your electronic dissertation via Next.Hessenbox.

• The examiners prepare a written examiner report on the submitted dissertation.
• The examiner report must be submitted to the dean at least two weeks before the defense. It proposes either the acceptance or rejection of the thesis and, if accepted, also assigns a grade.

• The defense is open to the public. Invitations will be sent out by the dean's office to everyone involved. Public announcements can be found online.
• The examination can be held in German or English, in person or in a hybrid format (with the consent of all parties involved). Spectators are not permitted to join digitally.
• A hybrid format may be useful for external examiners, but there is no legal entitlement to this, as it can only be carried out with the consent of all parties involved.

The defense is divided into:

• Presentation of the dissertation (approx. 30 minutes)
• Defense (approx. 60 minutes)
• Questions from the examination committee (approx. 30 minutes)

The overall grade is then decided in a closed session.

The chair of the examination board will inform doctoral candidates immediately after the grades have been awarded whether any requirements need to be fulfilled. These must be implemented before publication, and the corrected version of the dissertation must be submitted to both the supervisor and co-supervisor for review. The correctness of the corrections is confirmed by a “Declaration on the transfer of rights to the dissertation” from the first examiners to the dean's office.

The dissertation must be published electronically on the TUprints university publication server—even if it is also published by a publisher.

Further information: Dissertation – Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek – TU Darmstadt

Please fill out the appropriate form and submit the original (signed by hand) to the doctoral office.

Declaration on the transfer of rights to the dissertation (opens in new tab)

Once the ULB has received the publication, it will inform the dean's office. You will then be issued with your doctoral certificate. This marks the official award of your doctorate.