Information on the PhD program

Before admission

Contact a possible supervisor (university professor, associate professor or other person with teaching authorization (venia docendi)). Here you will find an overview of the departments and units of our faculty.

Agreement on a possible dissertation topic and preparation of a dissertation concept consisting of a maximum of 4,000 characters. The dissertation concept should contain:

Research question

Method

max. 5 selected references

Desired supervisor

Admission

Information on admission, including the required documents and deadlines, can be found on the website of the study department. As part of the required online application, the dissertation concept must be uploaded in addition to the certificates.

After all documents have been submitted with the online application, it will be checked whether the completed degree program allows admission to the doctoral program (general university entrance qualification) and whether the topic proposed according to the dissertation concept can be supervised at the faculty. The desired supervisor will be involved in this process. Coordination in advance (see “Before admission”) supports a prompt decision.

You will then be informed by the study department whether admission is possible and, if so, you will be invited to do so in person at thestudy department.

Please note: Admission does not replace the dissertation agreement after admission and is not an approval of the specific topic, the supervisor or a commitment of resources!

After admission

Attendance of the course SE Konzipierung der Dissertation (takes place every semester). During this course, the exposé is also written and the topic is presented to the faculty. The exposé should include the dissertation topic, the timetable and the courses agreed with the supervisor.

Registration of the dissertation (dissertation agreement) with the Examination Unit, enclosing the exposé and the team of supervisors.

Supervision of Doctoral Theses

Supervision of doctoral theses in the Doctoral Programme in Engineering Sciences at the University of Innsbruck is subject to clear quality standards and is regulated in § 26 of the study law regulations. The selection of supervisors follows a tiered principle, whereby internal and appropriately qualified individuals are given priority.

1. In principle, the following individuals are authorized to supervise:

• Members of the academic staff of the University of Innsbruck who hold a venia docendi (authorization to teach) in the relevant field.

2. In objectively justified cases, additional qualified individuals may be appointed as supervisors or assessors – in the following order:

1. Private lecturers of the University of Innsbruck
2. Emeritus professors or retired university professors and lecturers of the University of Innsbruck
3. Individuals holding a venia docendi at another recognized Austrian university
4. Individuals holding a venia docendi at a recognized foreign university, whose teaching qualification is equivalent to that at the University of Innsbruck
5. Individuals without a venia docendi but with a qualification equivalent to a venia docendi at a recognized foreign university (especially in countries where venia docendi does not exist)
6. In well-founded individual cases: individuals with a qualification equivalent to a venia docendi at non-university research institutions
7. Academic staff members of the University of Innsbruck holding a doctoral degree and leading a highly competitive externally funded research project (e.g. ERC grant) – exclusively for supervising doctoral theses of project staff working on topics closely related to the project

Note: Individuals from a lower-ranking group may only be appointed if no eligible person from a higher-ranking group is available.

Doctoral supervision is generally carried out by a team of at least two individuals, one of whom must be designated as the main supervisor. This person is typically a member of the academic staff of the University of Innsbruck with a venia docendi.