Curriculum, ECTS
In accordance with their supervisor, PhD students can choose one of the following four doctoral research field:
| Field | academic title | ECTS required | Curriculum |
| Biology (794 685 437) | PhD | 30 | |
| Molecular Biology (794 685 490) | PhD | 30 | |
| Environmental Sciences (796 605 299) | Dr.rer.nat. | 12 | Doctoral Programme in Natural Sciences and Technical Sciences in the field of Natural Sciences |
| Geosciences/Earth Sciences (796 605 426) | Dr.rer.nat. | 24 |
You can get ECTS for:
- Lectures and seminars from the course directory:
- Seminar series/journal clubs from your working group
- Oral/poster presentations at conferences; summer/winter school participation (online or in person):
- ECTS are determined by the DSPL, usually:
- Conference attendance: 2
- Conference attendance with poster or talk presentation: 4
- Organization of a scientific event: 2
- Participation in an outreach event: 1-2
- External workshops, summer schools, etc. : calculation based on the standard conversion system
- ECTS can only be awarded for conferences that have been attended after the PhD candidate passed the prelim.
- After you’ve reached 30/24/12 ECTS (depending on field of study), there’s no need to hand in documents anymore; conferences will not be named explicitly in your degree certificate
- ECTS are determined by the DSPL, usually:
- Transferrable skills workshops:
- courses are offered by the Center for Doctoral Studies
- courses offered for employees of the University of Vienna; Kursdatenbank
- Other courses that are consistently offered by the VDSMES at least once per year include:
- Research Data Management in the Life Sciences -> Participation is required in your first year as it will teach you how to prepare a data management plan for your PhD!
- In-depth coaching workshops on the topic of scientific paper writing
- Scientific Graphic Design
- Introduction to the Doctoral School and its services
How to get ECTS:
Please email the following documents to vds-mes.cemess@univie.ac.at (all as pdf!):
- Participation certificate
- For conferences: Poster/talk confirmation unless already indicated on the certificate
- General program (as pdf or link)
Please note that ECTS credits for external courses can only be officially granted after you've submitted your dissertation agreement. You can send the documents beforehand, but they will only be entered into u:space once the agreement has been handed in.
What does "ECTS" stand for?
ECTS stands for "European Credit Transfer System". The number of ECTS credits is calculated from the effort that more or less is required in your course. 1 ECTS credit corresponds on average to a workload of 25 hours per semester. The workload includes the preparation, the course unit itself and the follow-up as well as the exam preparation.
One more detail:
The "European Credit Transfer System" makes higher education within Europe more comparable. It aims at enabling students with a higher education degree from institution A to continue their higher education at institution B.