How to Apply

Is your doctoral project positioned at the intersection between technology and society? Are you interested in an exchange between the social sciences, humanities and the STEM disciplines? Would you like to draw on the expertise of science and technology studies? If so, then the MCTS and its Integrative Graduate Center TechnoScienceStudies can offer you an inspiring environment for your research and your academic qualifications.

The MCTS has an interdisciplinary orientation and is well-connected with all other departments at TUM. For this reason, doctoral candidates come from various fields and work on different subject areas. Doctoral candidates work and study under the umbrella of TechnoScienceStudies, which aims to advance research on and with technoscientific fields.

We welcome applications from doctoral candidates:

who are working or would like to work on a topic that reflects the research agenda of the MCTS and can be supervised at the institute,

who are pursuing their doctorate in departments or in research groups at TUM that are associated with the MCTS, and/or

who would like to enroll in doctoral education and training at the MCTS – either with scholarship funding or as a doctoral candidate from another institution seeking supervision with an MCTS faculty member.

Depending on the subject-specific focus of the doctoral project, candidates can pursue any of the doctoral degrees awarded at TUM. The MCTS itself awards the following academic titles: Dr. phil., Dr. rer. soc., Dr. iur., Dr. rer. pol., and Dr. oec. publ.

Interested?

Doctoral projects, education and training at MCTS are governed by the general statutory regulations of TUM and the TUM Graduate School.

For basic information about the doctoral program at TUM, please refer to the Promotionsordnung/Regulations for the Award of Doctoral Degrees and the TUM-GS website.

1. How to Apply

Find a subject for your Doctoral Thesis and a Supervisor

Do you have a research idea that is thematically suited to an MCTS professor or research group?

Then please contact a possible supervisor at the Center and provide information about your

dissertation project (a short abstract, about 1 page)
previous academic history (a short CV, about 2 pages).

You can find an overview of the professors and researchers at the MCTS here.

Securing Funding

There are different ways to fund your doctoral studies at the MCTS, for example, by working as a researcher, through a scholarship or through external funding sources.

Open researcher positions are usually announced through open calls for applications. You can find current announcements for open positions on the MCTS and TUM websites.

Information about scholarships and other funding opportunities for doctoral candidates is provided by the TUM Graduate School here.

Application Requirements for Doctoral Studies

The requirement for taking up doctoral studies at TUM is an above-average degree (Diplom, Magister or master’s) from a university, or an equivalent state examination or a master’s examination from a university of applied sciences.

“Above-average” means that the overall grade or rating must be at least 2.5 or “good.” In exceptional cases, your qualification can be demonstrated by means of scholarly achievements accomplished after you completed your degree, such as publications. The MCTS determines whether or not to recognize your degrees or other qualifications.

In the case of degrees from universities from outside of Germany, the final grade and equivalence will be verified by the Examination Office at TUM: Recognition procedure for foreign university degrees. This happens during the application for entry into the doctoral candidacy list.

2. Admission

Have you already found a supervisor at the MCTS?

Supervision Agreement

Once you have arranged for supervision, you and your supervisor should complete a supervision agreement together. This agreement specifies the aims and objectives of the intended dissertation project and includes a project outline.

A template of the MCTS supervision agreement and guidelines for the project outline can be found here. The supervision agreement is required for entry onto the doctoral candidacy list. The supervision agreement governs the supervision relationship and can be modified at a later date.

Entry into the Doctoral Candidacy List

Once the supervision agreement is completed, doctoral candidates are entered into the doctoral candidacy list, which is required for all doctoral candidates at TUM. You can apply to be entered into the list on the DocGS online portal. This application is submitted to the MCTS together with the required documents that are listed on the portal.

Please note: Your application can only be processed by the MCTS when all documents have been submitted with the appropriate signatures.

Upon entry into the doctoral candidacy list, all doctoral candidates automatically become members of the TUM Graduate School. Membership is required for at least two years.

Our tip: Please apply early for entry into the doctoral candidacy list!

Enrollment (optional)

Once you have been admitted to the doctoral program and have been entered into the doctoral candidacy list, you can either enroll at TUM or obtain guest status.

Enrollment incurs a fee but includes all the advantages of student status, e.g. eligibility for the semester ticket and general student discounts. It is voluntary for doctoral candidates and subject to a maximum of 6 semesters.

Guest status does not incur any costs. It is mainly recommended for external doctoral candidates or those doing cooperative doctoral programs. As a guest you are issued with a guest account for the use of IT services at. Please contact the MCTS Graduate Center to apply for guest status.