A caveat before anything else, and it matters more in Germany than almost anywhere else.
Doctoral regulations at RWTH are set per faculty, not centrally. Each faculty has its own Promotionsordnung.
The figures in this guide come mainly from the School of Business and Economics, whose rules are published in English in unusual detail. They are representative of how RWTH works, but your faculty's §17 may differ in the specifics. Read your own faculty's regulations before acting on any number here. The Mechanical Engineering regulations are linked above so you can see how much varies.
The defence: fifteen minutes, no slides
This is the rule that most surprises candidates from other systems.
The oral examination consists of a freely spoken 15 minute presentation, without using projection media, as well as an examination discussion lasting at least 45 minutes.
Read both halves carefully.
No projection media at all. Not "keep slides minimal" but no slides, no screen. Fifteen minutes of speaking, unaided, about work you have spent years on.
Freely spoken. Reading from a script is not the intent either.
If you have only ever presented with slides, this needs genuine rehearsal, not just familiarity with your material. Practise aloud, to a timer, without notes in front of you. The usual failure is running long, because slides normally do the work of pacing you.
The discussion that follows runs at least 45 minutes, so the whole examination is an hour or more.
Examiners: at least three, being the first reviewer, one other reviewer, and the chair of the doctoral commission.
The duty to publish, and its deadline
German doctorates carry an obligation to publish, and RWTH puts a clock on it.
The doctoral thesis must be published within one year subsequent to the oral defence. In justified exceptional cases, the dean may extend the deadline.
Treat the extension as a safety net for genuine problems, not as part of the plan. A year is enough time if you decide the route early and enough money if you pick the right one, which brings us to the part that actually costs money.
Copy counts: choose your route carefully
This is the most financially consequential decision in the whole process, and it is easy to make by default rather than deliberately.
| Route | Total copies | Central Library | Dean's Office | Also required |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Print yourself | 31 | 30 | 1 | 1 PDF to Dean's Office |
| Journal publication | 17 | 14 | 3 | — |
| Publisher (≥150 copies) | 17 | 14 | 3 | Publisher confirmation |
| Electronic publication | 3 | 1 | 2 | — |
Thirty-one bound archival-paper copies against three. On archival stock, permanently bound, that difference is not small.
Electronic publication is the cheapest route by a wide margin, and it is a legitimate one. If your work is going to a publisher or a journal anyway, the 17-copy route comes with the confirmation requirement attached.
Paper and binding
Printed copies must be on ageing-resistant, non-punched and non-acidic paper, permanently bound.
This is an archival specification, not a preference. Print shops will supply ordinary stock unless told otherwise, so specify it when you order, and get it right the first time given the quantities involved.
Title page and the last page
All copies must include a dedicated title page carrying your name.
The last page may include your CV in tabular form, or details of your educational background, in German and English. That is permitted rather than required, and the tabular German CV format (tabellarischer Lebenslauf) is the convention.
The D 82 notation
Where you publish through a journal or a publisher, the reverse of the title page must carry:
- Details of the journal or publishing house involved
- The notation D 82 (Diss. RWTH Aachen University, [year])
D 82 is the identifier for an Aachen dissertation in the German university dissertation coding system. It is not optional formatting; it is how the thesis is catalogued.
Abstracts
The electronic version must contain an abstract in both German and English. If you are writing in English and do not work in German, arrange the German abstract well before the deadline rather than in the final week.
The Doctoral Academy
Alongside the subject-specific doctorate, which is the dissertation, the oral examination and the publication, RWTH's structured programmes include a supradisciplinary qualification through the RWTH Doctoral Academy.
Budget time for it. Structured programme requirements sit outside the dissertation and are easy to leave until they become urgent.
What to confirm with your own faculty
Because regulations are faculty-level, these are the things to check against your Promotionsordnung rather than this page:
- The copy counts and publication routes in your faculty's §17 or equivalent
- Whether your faculty's oral examination uses the same 15 plus 45 minute format
- Length expectations, which the regulations generally do not fix
- Formatting: margins, font, line spacing
- Citation style, a disciplinary matter
- Whether a cumulative dissertation is permitted, and on what terms
- Grading, including whether summa cum laude is available and how it is decided
- The language the dissertation and examination may be conducted in
- Any embargo possibility, given the publication duty
Pre-submission checklist
- Reading my own faculty's Promotionsordnung, not another faculty's
- Defence presentation rehearsed aloud, to time, with no slides and no script
- Prepared for at least 45 minutes of discussion afterwards
- Publication route chosen deliberately, with the copy count and cost understood
- Archival paper specified with the print shop: ageing-resistant, non-punched, non-acidic
- Permanent binding arranged
- Title page carrying my name on every copy
- D 82 notation on the reverse title page, if publishing via journal or publisher
- Publisher confirmation obtained, if using the publisher route
- German and English abstracts ready for the electronic version
- Publishing inside one year of the defence
- Doctoral Academy requirements completed, if in a structured programme
Where to get help
Your faculty's doctoral commission and Dean's Office own the regulations, the examination and the publication check. The University Central Library receives the copies and can confirm what it will accept. The RWTH Doctoral Academy owns the supradisciplinary requirements.
If the writing itself is the bottleneck, our thesis writing support works through it chapter by chapter, and our PhD thesis help covers doctoral work specifically.
