Curriculum

The course of pursuing a doctoral degree at TU Wien is defined in the curriculum. The curriculum defines the qualification profile, the scope and duration, the curricular part, the examination regulations, etc. Please note that the English version of the curriculum is for your information only. The legally binding document is the German version of the curriculum in the University Gazette of TU Wien.

Qualification Profile

According to the qualification profile the core of the doctoral program at TU Wien is the “development of knowledge through self-directed research.” The objective is the dissertation, which primarily is the result of self-directed and independent research. It proofs the capability of doing research on one’s own, that one has mastered the scientific methods and is capable of solving scientific problems.

Structure of the Programme

• The doctoral program has a total of 180 ECTS and is aimed at a duration (Regelstudiendauer) of three years.
• The doctoral program includes the completion of courses within the curricular part, the writing of the thesis and the defence of the thesis (Rigorosum).
• The curricular part consists of courses for a total of 18 ECTS.

1 ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) is equivalent to 25 to 30 working hours. The amount of work of a student in an academic year is estimated to be approx. 1500 to 1800 hours. This corresponds to 60 ECTS per year. This is the reason for the official program length of three years. Thus a doctoral program has not necessarily to last for three years.

Essentially, the courses for the curricular part can be selected by the doctoral candidate themselves. Question regarding the selection of courses and lectures might be answered here. Your supervisor and the dean of studies have to agree. Most faculties have particular guidelines or requirements regarding the courses, these are listed here.

Each field of study could have additional requirements for the doctoral study. This affects for example the Faculty of Informatics, or the Faculty of Architecture.

Please check with your dean’s office (Dekanatszentrum) to see if there are any requirements for your program.

Received Academic Degree

Depending on the completed doctoral program, the following degrees are awarded at TU Wien: “Doktor der Naturwissenschaften” (doctor of natural sciences), abbr. “Dr. rer. nat.”, “Doktor der Sozial- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften” (doctor of social and economic sciences), abbr. “Dr. rer. soc. oec.” and “Doktor der Technischen Wissenschaften” (doctor of technical sciences), abbr. “Dr. techn.”.

Course of Action

After finding a supervisor, applying for admission to the doctoral programme and your enrollment, we would suggest the following timeline for your study:

As mentioned above, some faculties can have additional requirements for the doctoral program, which could change the timeline. This is the case for all doctoral candidates at the Faculty of Informatics. Based on the guideline “Standard Procedure for Doctoral Program at the Faculty of Informatics” we suggest the following time line for the Informatics-Pre-Docs: