PhD School Programme
Curriculum
PhD students are required to take 36 course credits during the first two academic years, with a required minimum of 21 credits during the first year and 15 during the second year. The number of credits acquired with each course depends on the course's difficulty and/or intensity.
A total of 198 credits are required, 162 of which are assigned for the PhD thesis.
Fundamental Courses
Students have to take five fundamental courses (15 credits), e.g. Research Methodology, Philosophy of Science, PhD workshop (conference-like system), Research and Career Planning for PhD Students, Scientific Project Management or Innovation Management.
Area Courses
Area Courses are research domain specific, following the faculty’s main research areas:
- Business Informatics
- Computational Intelligence
- Computer Engineering
- Distributed and Parallel Systems
- Media Informatics and Visual Computing
Courses
Courses are offered from beginning of October to the end of June. Each activity allowing for the acquisition of credits is evaluated. Three types of courses are offered: advanced courses, PhD courses and outside courses.
Cick here for information about the courses/lectures for the winter term 2009/2010.
Advanced Courses
Advanced courses are taken from the faculty's master programme and aim at supporting students in order to pass the comprehensive exam (these courses do not offer credits). They are chosen on an individual basis with the objective to bring all students to an equal level.
PhD Courses
The school organizes PhD courses covering advanced state-of-the-art and research topics whose goal is to…
- allow students to develop appropriate skills in a number of the faculty’s research areas – a primary and a secondary area (thus two areas),
- develop depth in their own research domain, and
- gain competences concerning fundamental methodological and epistemological research questions.
Outside Courses
As a special form of PhD courses, a student can – upon approval by the Commission of the PhD School and his/her advisor – take courses at summer schools, or at other universities offering a PhD-level programme.
Such courses may also be specifically designed for exchange programmes with other universities. The courses attended abroad must either be within the framework of formalized agreements or approved in advance by the Commission of the PhD School. Also, they must assure a number of credits to the student.
Exams
PhD School students will have to pass three exams: the comprehensive exam, the qualifying exam and the final exam. Exams are administrated by the Commission of the PhD School and may consist of a written test, an oral test or other types of procedures defined by the commission and the lecturers.
Comprehensive Exam
The goal of the comprehensive exam is to assess the knowledge level of students in the Faculty of Informatics’ research areas. In principal, we assess if the student has broad knowledge in the scientific areas of computer science.
One of these areas is designated as the Primary Area, e.g. the research area of the student. All other areas are regarded as a Secondary Area. Knowledge of a secondary area does not have to be as specific and deep.
The Commission of the PhD School prepares a list of subjects covering the required knowledge in order to successfully pass the comprehensive exam. Having passed the comprehensive exam is a prerequisite for admission to the second academic year.
Click here for information about material to be used for the preparation of the comprehensive exam (login via TU Password).
Qualifying Exam
Students’ progress on their research activities is evaluated through the qualifying exam, which is to be taken at the beginning of the second year. The qualifying exam is essentially the PhD proposal (approx. 10 pages), including:
- State-of-the-art survey (2-5 pages)
- Proposal for innovative research contribution for the thesis work with a clear and detailed description of the research directions and objectives as well as the methodological approach (2-5 pages)
- Work plan
- References (max. 20)
- List of student publications
- 3-5 keywords
This proposal is first assessed by the advisor, then by the Commission of the PhD School. Students will be then invited to discuss their proposals.
Final Exam
At the end of their studies, students will have to defend their work, which is previously evaluated by the advisor and an external reviewer. Based on this evaluation and defense a board of examiners will decide on the final mark.