First Defence

By the end of the first semester, students have to have completed a First Defence which is an oral board examination in which the dissertation project is being presented by the student (approx. 20 minutes) and subsequently discussed with the board. The board consists of the Programme Director, the Dean of Studies of the Faculty of Law and the two supervisors.

Apart from the candidate, the Programme Director, the Dean of Studies of the Faculty of Law and the two supervisors need to attend the First Defence.

In order to register for the First Defence, students have to submit all the documents listed below to the Coordinator: 

• the form PhD01: Doctoral Thesis and the First Defence,
• supervision agreement (please have our template signed),
• master data (please have our template submitted by the supervisor if one of the supervisors is currently not a staff member at the University of Graz),
• proof of the postdoctoral lecture qualification of a supervisor (only required from supervisors not being a staff member at the University of Graz) and
• a research proposal (exposé; 30,000 - 40,000 characters), including a description (including methodology) of the intended research project, its expected scientific results and importance, a preliminary preview of relevant literature and a timeline for the completion of the thesis.

All the forms and templates have to be fully completed and signed by all parties (except for the Dean of Studies) in order to arrange the First Defence. Please make sure to submit them well in advance before the intended date to the Coordinator and contact the Coordinator for information on how a date for the First Defence ("Termine") can be definitely determined. Important: The documents required have to be submitted to the Coordinator some weeks before the intended date of the First Defence since they also need to be approved by the Dean of Studies of the Faculty of Law. As long as the documents required have not been entirely correctly submitted (e.g. a form or signature is missing; the research proposal does not meet the requirements; ...), the Dean of Studies of the Faculty of Law will not give any approval and the First Defence cannot be arranged.