PhD Computer Science - Timeline 

As soon as possible, register as a doctoral student. The admission process and the documents needed for admission vary depending on the student’s nationality and the type of school-leaving certificate (including where the certificate was issued) that is presented as proof of eligibility to study at university.

Information & contact: Admission Department

As soon as the contours of your research topic emerge (say, within the first 6 months, or 12 at most), submit the form Application of the Dissertation (Bekanntgabe des Themas und der Betreuung der Dissertation) to the Examination Office.

To complete it, you need

• a tentative title for your dissertation
• a description of the intended research (3-5 pages, including a schedule, in English)
• your principal supervisor and a secondary supervisor
• optionally, a third supervisor

The first two supervisors are supposed to be from the Faculty MIP and must have a habilitation or higher qualification; the third at least a doctorate.

Shortly after you have submitted your Application for the Dissertation to the Examination Office, you can create your Doctoral Thesis Agreement together with your supervisor/s. You will receive an email as soon as the agreement is ready to be created. Some parts must be completed within four weeks; others will be updated over the duration of your doctoral work.

Follow the strict rules when submitting the Dissertation published on the website of the Examination Office.

Submit your dissertation with the following material

• Form Examination Records (Protokoll Doktoratsstudium)
• The Dissertation must be submitted in electronic form only to the Examination Office.
• PlagScan confirmation
• Printout from the registry of Austrian dissertations
• Form Submission of the Dissertation (Einreichung der Dissertation):

1. Title of the dissertation
2. Subject area for Computer Science not required.
3. Desired Erstbeurteiler/in, desired Zweitbeurteiler/in: propose two independent external reviewers. Make sure that there is no conflict of interest between you, your supervisor and the external reviewers. The rules of FWF apply.
4. If none of your supervisors should be a reviewer, indicate so on a separate sheet. Otherwise, your main supervisor will automatically serve as a reviewer, and the Dean of Studies will choose the second reviewer from the two proposed external reviewers. The Examiniation office contacts the reviewers.

If anything is unclear please contact the Examination Office Standort Technikerstrasse 17.

The two reviews must have arrived at the Examination Office.

The Examination Board of a final doctoral examination is to have at least one member who neither supervised nor graded the doctoral dissertation. Choose three examiners, suggesting one of them as chair. All three examiners must hold a habilitation (or equivalent). Examiners are typically chosen among the Department of Computer Science, but may also be external.

Fix the date of the defense with the examiners and arrange a room (by e-mail to fss-technik@uibk.ac.at).

Submit the form Application for the Dissertation’s Defense (Anmeldung zur Verteidigung der Dissertation – Rigorosum) to the Examination Office at least 4 weeks before the examination date. It is not possible to submit the form after the deadline. 

If all requirements are satisfied, the Examination Office will confirm the date of the defense by e-mail two weeks before the defense.

Presentation: 30 min

Questions per examiner: 20-30 min

The defense (including the examination questions) is open to the public.