Deadline for Admission to Doctoral Examination - March 2026
If you are planning to apply for your doctoral examinations by 23. March 2026 (thesis submission by 07.04.2026), please note the deadline to inquire the signatures from the allocated GSfBS coordinator this time is Thursday, 19.03.2026 12:00 (noon).
We can only assure a smooth processing of your requests if they reach us by the indicated date and you have followed the instructions provided below.
Doctoral Candidates seeking consultations for this final stage of their PhD are encouraged to drop an email to arrange an appointment.
To facilitate the procedure, please comply with the following
- Visit the website of the Doctoral Office of the FMN informing about the procedure “Completion of the Doctorate”: https://mathnat.uni-koeln.de/en/phd/completion-of-the-doctorate
- You have filled the application form correctly and completely; ideally, the application has been signed electronically by you and your PhD advisor
- IMPORTANT: Note that Section 6 "Acknowledgement by the Department's Graduate School" in the "Application for admission to the Doctoral Examination" form is meant to be filled by the coordinators.
DON'T tick or select any of the options, DON'T enter any comments in this part of the form. - It is recommended to coordinate with your examination committee in advance to determine the date of the defense within the examination period.
Activities in Docfile:
- You have uploaded all documents associated with your TAC meetings to the GSfBS G-folder in Docfile.
- In your email to us, you include the exact dates of all TAC meetings you had during your PhD.
- You have uploaded the certificate of attendance of the Good Scientific Conduct workshop to the GSfBS G-folder in Docfile
Members of specialised programmes
- You inform the coordinator of your programme about your plans to complete your PhD and have them Cc'ed when you contact the GSfBS.
The GSfBS has prepared a leaflet with suggestions on how to approach the writing of a doctoral thesis in Biological Sciences. The document is intended solely to provide guidance on certain aspects. Advanced Doctoral Candidates who wish to access the document are welcome to contact the GSfBS coordinators.
Welcome to the Graduate School for Biological Sciences
In May 2006, the University of Cologne established an international, broadly based graduate school in the biological sciences providing students with opportunities for training in fields ranging from molecular biology, biochemistry, genetics, ecology and evolution, and including all the major microbial, plant and animal model organisms. Based on a phase of systematic experimentation in earlier, small-scale graduate programmes in which we have developed and tested methods for an improved graduate training, we developed a structured programme for the graduate school of the department for biology. A large variety of specialized graduate programmes is partly unified under the GSfBS umbrella and a core programme is available for all graduate students in all areas of biology. It fosters the excellent scientific connections between research groups in the basic science and medical research institutes in the University and the Max Planck Institutes for Plant Breeding Research, for the Biology of Ageing and for Metabolism Research and exploits them for the benefit of the graduates.
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