PhD students

Dissertation committee

The general regulations about the dissertation committee at Constructor university are as follows:

• Prior to the presentation of the PhD proposal, the dissertation committee must consist of at least the chair of the dissertation committee and one further regular member.

The dissertation committee form can be found here.

PhD proposal

• must be in English
• must include a cover page, an abstract, a description of the major questions pursued, a time frame for completing the work, a comprehensive bibliography of relevant primary and secondary research materials and databases, and a review of relevant, current work in the area.
• should not be longer than 30 pages.
• must be submitted at least 10 working days before the anticipated date of the PhD proposal presentation via this online form

The general regulations about the PhD proposal presentation at Constructor university are as follows:

• The dissertation committee form must have been submitted to the registrar services before the proposal is submitted via the online form
• The proposal must be presented in public upon invitation by the Dean.
• The proposal must be presented at most nine months after enrollment into the PhD program.
• The PhD advisor must be physically present to evaluate the proposal.
• At least one further member of the approved dissertation committee must be physically present to evaluate the proposal.

If the PhD proposal is not presented within nine months after enrollment into the PhD program, the student may get a prolongation of three months (deferral of proposal presentation form). If not or if the PhD Proposal is not presented within the prolongation period, the Student may be removed from the register of students without degree.

The PhD proposal evaluation must be submitted by the PhD Advisor and at least one further committee member not later than 14 days after the PhD Proposal Presentation. The evaluation form is sent out with the proposal, but can also be downloaded here.

The complete regulations, can be found in the graduate policies and the appendix C.

Dissertation committee

Before officially submitting the PhD thesis for evaluation, you must have finalized the dissertation committee. Following general rules apply:

• if any of the old members has resigned or has been removed, they must confirm in writing (email will suffice) to the registrar services that they have resigned or agree with being removed
• if any new members have been added, these need to sign the dissertation committee form
• the final dissertation committee must fulfill the following criteria:
  • at least two Constructor university faculty members (at most one adjunct professor)
  • at least one external member
  • each committee member must either be present at the defense and/or write a review

Submission of the PhD thesis

The PhD Thesis is submitted at the end of the third year of enrollment. However, an extension of studies is possible upon approval by the Dean. The application form for extension of graduate studies can be downloaded here.

The general regulations about the PhD thesis at Constructor university are as follows:

• must be written in English
• must include a title page that informs about the university granting the degree, the title of thesis and the names of the reviewers
  • PhD thesis cover page
  • PhD thesis cover page (double degree)
• it needs to contain an English summary
• it also needs to contain a declaration by the PhD Student that this has been written independently and has not been submitted at another University for the conferral of a Degree.
  • Statutory declaration on authorship

Formatting of the PhD thesis (single-sided, double-sided, size, font, etc) is discussed and approved by the Chair. For the review of the thesis, spiral-bining is okay, for the publication - only non-spiral binding is accepted.

The general regulations about the PhD thesis submission at Constructor university are as follows:

• All the above regulations must be fulfilled
• The following number of copies are submitted to the registrar services:
  • one hard copy per member of the dissertation committee
  • one hard copy for registrar services
  • one hard copy for the dean’s office
  • one hard copy for display in the information resource center
• If your PhD thesis contains papers/manuscripts that others have contributed to as co-authors, please submit a signed statement on contribution that includes a percentage and a short description of your contribution to each chapter of the Thesis. Please submit one hard copy per dissertation committee member, one copy for the IRC and one for the registrar services.
• Please inform the registrar services electronically via registrar@constructor.university when you are planning on submitting the hard copies as well as to which physical address the hard copies should be sent to - this applies to internal reviewers (research building and room number or postal address) as well as to external reviewers. In addition, please include the email addresses of your external reviewers.
• After the submission of the hard copies, the PhD student must also upload an electronic version of the Thesis to a plagiarism check platform. This step will be clarified during the submission appointment.

The PhD thesis evaluation must be submitted by the chair, at least one further internal committee member and at least one external committee member at least 6 working days before the PhD thesis defense.

PhD thesis defense

The date is organized by the chair of the dissertation committee. The general regulations about the scheduling the PhD thesis defense at Constructor University are as follows:

• reviewers have 8 weeks to evaluate the thesis
• if you would like to schedule defense before the eight weeks deadline, you must:
  • submit the dissertation at least 13 working days before the anticipated date of defense
  • have your reviewers agree to send the signed, hard copy of their Review six working days before the anticipated date of defense
• the defense must be scheduled by the student via this form at least ten working days prior to the date of the defense

The general regulations about the PhD thesis defense at Constructor University are as follows:

• the PhD thesis is defended to the university public upon invitation by the dean
• at least three regular members of the dissertation committee, the chair, one internal member and one external member, have to be physically present
• the defense includes a presentation by the candidate, a discussion of the research, and questions on the discipline in which the degree is to be granted

A video conference is possible. The chair or the student has to write a formal request (via email) to the dean.

Publication

The PhD degree is conferred only upon publication of the PhD thesis. The Thesis must be published with one year after the defense. All regulations regarding the publication are dealt with by the IRC. For detailed information about the publication procedure, please see the IRC's guide for publishing a dissertation and the IRC's tips on how to format a PhD thesis for publication.

Relevant forms:

• Authorization for publication
• Signature sheet for the conferral of the degree
• Statutory declaration on publication
• Statutory declaration of authorship
• Declaration coauthors
• Statement on contribution

After the thesis has been defended, the final version of the thesis is submitted to the IRC for the purpose of publication via an online form that can be found here (link is external).

Graduation ceremony

Only PhD Students who submit and defend their dissertation at least 3 days before the graduation date may participate at the Graduation ceremony as a walkthrough. If you would like to receive your diploma during the Graduation ceremony, you have to submit the confirmation that your PhD thesis has been published at least 3 working days before the graduation date.