There are no specific application forms or submission deadlines. Students that are not supported financially by the department, for example, industrial doctoral students. In some cases, these students conduct their studies on a part-time basis. A student has to reach certain milestones on the way to a successful Ph.D thesis. These milestones and certain measures for self evaluation provide objective means to measure student progress and will act as a basis for a yearly review of all students.
Course work is required in the program and varies between the different research laboratories.
For details on the time plan and course requirements, see the information from each research group . In order to further improve the quality assurance additional procedures are employed by the department. The defense can take place only after the student has received the required number of course points. At the seminar, the student will present the work using at the most 1 hour. The opponent should be a person holding a Ph.D and having expert knowledge in the field.