Admission to the Doctoral Programs

Table of Contents

Requirements for Admission

Admission to a doctoral program at TU Wien is based on the following conditions in compliance with § 60 – 65 of the University Studies Act (Universitätsgesetz 2002):

degree of a relevant diploma or master program,
completion of a relevant degree program issued by an accredited Austrian or foreign post secondary education institution,
degree of a relevant course at a Technical College („Fachhochschule“) according to § 6 Abs. 4 of the Technical Colleges Act („Fachhochschulgesetz“),

Conditions for Admission with International Diploma or Master Degree

Before starting your studies, you will have to apply for the general admission to a doctoral program at the Admission Office. For this, please consider the application form and info sheet. All documents you need for the application are listed in the info sheet. Even if not a formal prerequisite to acquire the admission, looking for a subject and a supervisor in advance is strongly recommended. Without a supervisor it will not be possible to finish the doctoral program. There are no general language requirements for doctoral candidates. In most cases, knowledge of the English language is sufficient, but check with your supervisor.

It takes TU Wien a maximum of 12 weeks to prove your application. If you are accepted you will get a notification of admission. Then you have to do the online pre-enrolment. After that you get a sequence number. After all, you can complete your enrolment on the doctoral program by the inscription at the Department for Studies in person. Please take your notification of admission, your sequence number and your passport with you.

You can finish your enrolment by inscription during the all year-around. Due to the long time for proving your application, you should keep in mind that the application can only be processed for the current semester if TU Wien receives it within the general admission period (deadline: end of January for summer semester and End of July for winter semester).

Depending on your diploma or master’s degree and your previous studies, the Dean of Studies (Studiendekan) may decree courses you have to catch up.

For further information about the special university entrance qualification please take a look at the information on the website of the TU Wien. Attention: You do not need the A2 German certificate as doctoral student if your superviser agrees!

Conditions for Admission with Austrian Diploma or Master Degree

Before starting your studies, you will have to apply for the general admission to a doctoral program at the Department for Studies. For this, please consider the form for application and info sheet. All documents you need for the application are listed in the info sheet. Even if not a formal prerequisite to acquire the admission, looking for a subject and a supervisor in advance is strongly recommended. There are no general language requirements for doctoral candidates. In most cases, knowledge of the English language is sufficient, but check with your supervisor.

It takes TU Wien up to 12 weeks to prove your application. If you are accepted you will get a notification of admission. Then you have to do the online pre-enrolment. After that you get a sequence number. After all, you can complete your enrolment on the doctoral program by the inscription (registration) at the Department for Studies in person. Please take your notification of admission, your sequence number and your passport with you.

You can finish your enrolment by inscription (registration) all year-around. Due to the long time for proving your application, you should keep in mind that the application can only be processed for the current semester if TU Wien receives it within the general admission period (deadline: end of January for summer semester and end of July for winter semester).

Depending on your diploma or master’s degree and your previous studies, the Dean of Studies (Studiendekan) may decree courses you have to catch up.

TU Wien Graduates

Graduates from TU Wien are admitted to a related docotral program and field of study. You do not need to apply for admission. If you are a graduate from TU Wien, please register in person at the Department for Studies.

Please take into account that you should talk to your Dean of Studies anyway. Please contact him or her after registration.

Filling in the form for application is needed only if you want to apply for a doctoral program which is not related to your master degree (for example Doctoral Program in Social and Economic Sciences after a master in Electrical Engineering).

Technical College („Fachhochschule“)

Graduates of relevant courses at a technical college, which are listed in the “Regulation of the Minister of Science and Research of Doctoral Studies of Technical Sciences for Graduates of University of Applied Sciences Master Programs” (Rechtsvorschrift für Zulassung von Fachhochschul-Masterstudiengängen und Fachhochschul-Diplomstudiengängen zu Doktoratsstudien) are to be admitted to a doctoral program without further requirements. Graduates of other courses at a technical collage may be not admitted or admitted with further requirements. Depending on the duration of your course, this further requirements can be up to 60 ECTS.

In any case, you have to fill out the form for application and proceed as described in “Conditions for Admission with Austrian Diploma or Master Degree”.

Continuing Education Course (“Universitätslehrgänge”)

The conditions for general admission of graduates of a Continuing Education Course to a doctoral program are the same as for all non-TU Wien graduates. Each case has to be checked seperately since there is no definition in law for the admission of graduates of such a course to a doctoral program.

Deadline for application/admission

Admission period:

Application and admission are possible all year-around for the doctoral programme.

More information:
https://www.tuwien.at/en/studies/admission/admission-deadlines/

Send in your documents in a timely manner, allowing for up to 10-12 weeks processing time! Please note that the Admission Office is not able to provide you with information about the current status of your application until the full processing time has expired. If you send more than one E-mail it does not speed up the process. If you need an earlier answer from the admission office, send your complete application at least 12 weeks before that. Therefore it is necessary that the Admission Office must have received complete application forms latest by
– End of July (for winter Semester) and
– End of January (for summer Semester).
More information:
https://www.tuwien.at/en/studies/admission/the-conditions-for-international-students/

Attention: You do not need the A2 German certificate as doctoral student if your superviser agrees!

Otherwise you might have to enroll for the next term. You can start with your PhD (research etc.) without being enrolled, and you finish as soon as you finished your PhD, indipendently of when you started. You just need to be enrolled to attend courses and to finish your PhD.