Foreign Degrees

You have a foreign degree and want to work on a doctoral project at the TUM Department of Mathematics? Here you get the necessary information.

If you want to work on a dissertation project and have a foreign degree, you need to apply for a recognition together with your application for enrollment at the department's doctoral list.

 

Recognition of a foreign degree

  • If you have a foreign degree and want to be enrolled into the doctoral program at TUM mathematics, you need to be aware that your registration will take about three months. It is not possible to find a shortcut or a special solution that is faster. Therefore, you might want to start on it as soon as possible.
  • You can also work on your registration when you are still abroad, as might be necessary if you need a visa to come to TUM.
  • This website is concerned only with your registration as a doctoral candidate. For information about housing and employment in context with your doctoral project please contact your supervisor or his*her secretary.

How to proceed:

The recognition of a foreign degree concerns 3 different areas:Firstly, you must apply for inclusion on the doctoral list via Doc-GS. Secondly, if you have a foreign degree, a recognition procedure for the foreign degree is automatically started. Both are mandatory. If you are entered on the doctoral list, you can optionally enroll as a doctoral student in order to receive student discounts.

 

Prerequisites for the Registration

Prerequisites for the registration are

  • a professor of the Department of Mathematics has agreed to be your supervisor and
  • your master is finished and you have at least preliminary master documents you can hand in.

 

Recognition of a foreign degree: Step-by-Step

For the registration you need to prepare

  • a supervision agreement. Please contact our Graduate Office for it. It must be signed by all listed persons. Please tell us if you need help collecting the signatures, if you are applying from abroad.
  • a certified copy of your foreign degree documents. Certified copies will be issued either by your home university or the local authorities of the community where you live. If you are applying from abroad you need to apply for the certified copies in the country where you live and send the documents via surface mail to the Dean's Office.
  • Please note:
    • If your documents are neither in English nor in German you have to get an authorized translation of the documents. You can find authorized translators for every language on the internet. They will also issue the certified copies of their translated documents.
    • Dean's Office is not authorized to certify the copies of your documents.
  • Here is the full list of documents

Please also note further information on certified copies.

  • Please open a new account on the TUM-GS platform and
  • answer the questions concerning your dissertation project, your supervision agreement, your degree and your background. There are data you have to supply and other data you need to contact your supervisor about.
    • Please note: You may need some time to collect all necessary data.
  • When you have everything complete, please submit the form.
  • You will then be asked to print the registration form, sign it yourself and
  • have it signed by your supervisor.
  • In your TUM-GS account you can also find information about the status of your applications.

  • Please turn in all documents listed on DocGS  under "applicants with a foreign degree" at the Dean's Office either in person or via surface mail.
  • Dean's Office will upload them into your account and send your hard copy papers to the TUM-central examination office.
  • The upload of your complete documents results in a confirmation about a preliminary acceptance as a doctoral candidate by Doc-GS.
  • If this document is not sufficient for your purposes, e.g. application for a visa to come to TUM, please contact the International School of Applied Mathematics (ISAM) about an official confirmation.
    • Please note: We cannot issue a confirmation about your acceptance into the doctoral program at TUM mathematics before the necessary documents are received by the dean's office. If you need a confirmation before that, e.g. for visa, you need to contact your supervisor for a letter of invitation.

  • After the examination office has received the documents they take over responsibility for the recognition procedure.
  • They will check the received documents and email you if documents are missing.
    • Please note that this email is sent only once. If you ignore it, there will be no further development towards your recognition. As a result you will not be able to receive a doctoral degree from TUM.
  • During this stage please communicate with the examination office directly,
  • but send possible missing documents to the dean's office.
    • Please note: As soon as examination office regards your documents as complete the recognition procedure will take about 6 weeks.

When your recognition is complete you will find those documents in your doc-gs account:

  • confirmation that your foreign degree is accepted
  • confirmation that you are registered on the doctoral list

The documents will be available as PDF until you have finished your thesis. They are legally valid for all purposes. Please contact the Dean's Office for further questions.

Registration as a student has nothing to do with enrollment into the department's doctoral list. For enrollment as a student you register via TUMonline to a TUM service that will provide you with a student card to receive all known student benefits. You may also need a student card for your grant or for your student accommodation. It is however not necessary for your dissertation project and for the application for a doctoral degree.

Basic information for your registration you find under enrollment. Once your approval of your foreign degree is confirmed, upload the two acknowledgments from step 5 along with the TUMonline application. Please address any further questions to the TUM Graduate School.

With your Student Card you can apply for a semester ticket. If you have any questions about it, please contact the TUM Graduate School.

Dekanat

Lydia Weber

Lydia Weber, MBA 

Dean's Office

Boltzmannstr. 3
85747 Garching
Room MI 00.10.044

Internal mail: Dek-MA

dekanat (at) ma.tum.de
Tel.: +49 (0)89 289 17583

Certified Copies

Please note the details concerning certified copies.