Oral Examination / Disputation

Oral Examination (Mündliche Prüfung): Disputation

With your signature on the “Application for the opening of the doctoral procedure (in German)” you agree (“Erklärung zur Dissertation”, page 2), for example, to a possible digital oral examination.
The Doctoral Regulations/Promotionsordnungen (PromO), supplemented by the statutes of the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) on the conduct of electronic distance examinations on the basis of the Bavarian Distance Examination Regulations (BayFEV) – EFernPO (German) – as amended, apply to the conduct of electronic distance examinations.

Please refer to the Doctoral Regulations/Promotionsordnungen (PromO) for the procedure and implementation and coordinate with your supervisor/first reviewer.
After coordinating the date with the examiners involved by the supervisor (first reviewer and examination chair) and receipt of all reviews (GAT), you will get your invitation (so-called “Big Letter / Großer Brief”) from the doctoral office at least one week before your disputation. The Disputation period you can see on the PhD Collection Dates (PST).

The invitation (so-called “Big Letter / Großer Brief”) will include the date/form of the oral examination and the name of the third examiner.
The third examiner is appointed by the doctoral chair for independent quality assurance and may not belong to the same institute as the first and second rewiever.
You then send your dissertation to the third examiner by email as a pdf document.

  • The oral examination in the form of a disputation covers the subject of the dissertation as well as related areas.
  • It serves to prove that the candidate is capable of scientific discussion, has mastered the field of his/her dissertation, is familiar with other related areas of the doctoral subject and can establish links to neighbouring disciplines.
  • The duration of the disputation is at least 45 and at most 90 minutes. The disputation is opened with a lecture of 15 to 30 minutes in which the candidate presents the most important results of his/her dissertation. This is followed by a scientific discussion (disputation), which proceeds from the lecture and should include interdisciplinary aspects.
  • The oral examination in the form of a defence takes place before an examination board consisting of three supervisors.
  • The oral examination is to be held in German, unless the supervisors involved allow it to be held in full or in part in English.
  • The results are recorded in a protocol and communicated to the doctoral office after completion of the examination together with the grade awarded.
  • After the grades have been confirmed by the doctoral affairs committee, you will receive a provisional certificate from us stating that you have passed the doctoral examination with all the grades achieved. Now you are ready to publish.

Further specifications can be found in the General Doctoral Regulations of the University Erlangen-Nürnberg (RPromO) and the Faculty Doctoral Regulations (FPromO)

If you have any further questions, please refer to our FAQs or contact the team at the Doctoral Office.