Supervision of your Ph.D. Project
Supervisor
The doctoral candidate is supervised by an authorized person (supervisor), who can be a member of the Medical Faculty, or from another faculty at the LMU or can belong to an external institution.
Please note that for students in the individual PhD the supervisor must be a member of the LMU Medical Faculty.
Supervision agreement
Please have your supervisor sign your supervision agreement, which is generated as a PDF by the Campus Portal, with an original, handwritten signature. Sign it yourself by hand as well. Upload a scan of the signed supervision agreement to your Campus Portal account and send the original by mail to the MMRS (Bavariaring 19, 80366 München).
Thesis Advisory Committee (TAC)
During the first semester of the doctoral research project, each Ph.D. candidate must have a Thesis Advisory Committee (TAC). The TAC is comprised of the supervisor, the second reviewer (must be private lecturer or professor) and a third TAC member (has to be at least an independent group leader). All areas of the research project should be appropriately covered. At least two members of the TAC must be members of the LMU's Medical Faculty.
The TAC has to fulfill the following criteria:
- The second TAC member belongs to another department than your main supervisor.
- TAC member 1 and 2 must be a private lecturer or professor
- TAC member 3 should to be at least an independent group leader (PI)
- Two out of three TAC members must be part of the Medical Faculty
- for candidates in the individual PhD: TAC member 1 has to be part of the Medical Faculty, 2 OR 3 can be from outside of the Medical Faculty (e.g. another departement, another LMU faculty or another university)
- A helpful list of all faculty members, their titles and assignment to the different institutes can be found in the LMU Directory of Persons and Institutions. This list should be used as a guide only. Please note that not all members listed here are also actively employed at an institution of the LMU Faculty of Medicine or the LMU Hospital.
Target Agreements, TAC Meetings and Target Amendments
Target Agreement ("Zielvereinbarung")
Together with his/her TAC, the Ph.D. candidate signs a target agreement (with original signatures), which not only reflects the supervision, but also gives information on the planned research project, milestones, curricular elements, etc. The target agreements is signed by all TAC members and the Ph.D. candidate. The signatures must be handwritten originals in ink. It must be handed in by the end of the second semester the very latest, otherwise the Ph.D. candidate will be exmatriculated from the program. Please use the Campus Portal to generate your target agreement.
Upload a scan of the signed target agreement to your Campus Portal account and send the original by mail to the MMRS (Bavariaring 19, 80366 München).
TAC Meetings and TAC Meeting protocols ("Zwischenevaluierungen")
The Ph.D. candidate should meet with his/her TAC in regular intervals and discuss the progress of the Ph.D. project and to determine the progress of the project. These meetings should be during the 3rd and during the 5th semester at the very latest. The student should prepare a written summary of his/her project and send it before the meeting to the members of the committee. At the meeting the student should give a 20-40min presentation about the progress of the project. The results and conclusions of the meeting should be summarized in a TAC Meeting Protocol and signed by all members of the committee and the student.
Target Amendments ("Änderungsvereinbarung")
Should the outcome of these TAC meetings be in accordance with the target agreement, the research project can carry on as planned. If there are differences to the original target agreement, a target amendment needs to be recorded. If the TAC determines that certain elements have not been fulfilled by the candidate, it can decide that these need to be repeated. If the elements are not fulfilled within a retry, the TAC is safe to assume that the candidate will not be able to fulfil the other requirements from the target agreement for completion of the dissertation and the oral defence. In this case, the TAC is terminated, the Ph.D. project is ended and the student is exmatriculated from the program. Please use the Campus Portal to generate your target amendment.
The following regulations will come into effect if one of the TAC members is absent for an extended period of time due to health reasons and is unable assist the candidate in finding an appropriate replacement
supervisor:
- If the first TAC member is absent due to a health condition for more than two months, his/her role will be transferred to the second TAC member until her/his return.
- For candidates in in the core area ’individual PhD’, the role of the first TAC member will only be transferred to the second TAC member if the latter is a member of the Faculty of Medicine of the LMU. If the second TAC member is not a member of the Medical Faculty of the LMU, the third TAC member will assume the roles of the first TAC member.
- The PhD candidate will selects a new TAC member to serve as the second or third TAC member, in consultation with his/her remaining TAC members.
- Should the second or third TAC member be absent due to a health condition for more than three months, a replacement for the absent TAC member should be sought, in consultation with the remaining TAC members.
- The MMRS should be notified immediately of the absence of a TAC member. When selecting a new TAC member, the applicable regulations regarding the composition of the TAC should be considered.
- Any changes in the composition of the TAC should be recorded in a target agreement amendment and signed by all parties involved (except the absent TAC member).
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