Student Handbook PhD Program - International Graduate Program ...

Student Handbook PhD Program 2010

Student Handbook PhD Program – Welcome

Welcome! As the scientific coordinator it is a great pleasure for me to welcome you to the Medical Neurosciences Program. We hope that we have been able to create a series of courses, which covers not only multiple aspects of Neuroscience and related medical topics, but still leaves you enough freedom and flexibility to explore your own scientific interests. The concentration of many Neuroscience institutes in Berlin provides a broad spectrum of expertise, ranging from basic to clinical sciences. As a consequence, the program offers different scientific approaches, from functional investigations at the molecular level to research on higher cognitive processes. We invite you to make use of these opportunities to the fullest. That way, you can develop an individual research focus that best matches your interests and abilities. The program has now been running since 2003, but the recent establishment of the Excellence Cluster "Neurocure" will result in major changes and improvements. We encourage you to participate in this constant evolution by making suggestions and expressing your ideas and criticism. Everything that helps to make the program better is welcome! I hope that you will not only benefit from the scientific curriculum and find this Master program to be a good starting point for your career, but that you also enjoy the program’s international and friendly atmosphere as well as the colorful life the City of Berlin has to offer. Make your time here a productive and memorable one! Wishing you a successful start

Dr. Benedikt Salmen

Student Handbook MSc Program – Team

Table of Content: Table of Content: ............................................................................................................................................. 3 The program office!.......................................................................................................................................... 4 1. On the Program ............................................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Goals and Philosophy of the Program ........................................................................................................... 1 1.1.2 What Can You Expect of the Program? .................................................................................................. 1 1.1.3 What Does the Program Expect of You? ................................................................................................ 2 1.2 Program Structure ......................................................................................................................................... 2 1.3 Formalities ..................................................................................................................................................... 3 1.3.1 ECTS and Credit Points ........................................................................................................................... 3 1.3.2 Documentation of Your CP ..................................................................................................................... 4 1.3.3 A Word on Attendance .......................................................................................................................... 4 1.3.4 Student Representatives ........................................................................................................................ 4 2 Getting Started .............................................................................................................................................. 5 2.1. Thesis Committee and Agreement on the Terms of Supervision .................................................................. 5 2.2 Mentoring...................................................................................................................................................... 5 2.3 Matriculation................................................................................................................................................. 6 2.4 The Office in Charge: Studienabteilung ......................................................................................................... 7 2.5 The PhD-Committee (Promotionskommission) ............................................................................................. 7 3 Important Tools............................................................................................................................................. 8 3.1 The Mailing List ............................................................................................................................................. 8 3.2 E-Learning - Introduction to Blackboard ....................................................................................................... 8 3.2.1 Login and Password................................................................................................................................ 8 3.2.2 What do PhD students find in Blackboard? ........................................................................................... 9 3.2.3 Hotline .................................................................................................................................................. 10 3.3 Virtual Private Network (VPN)..................................................................................................................... 10 3.4 Charité E-Mail Account ................................................................................................................................ 11 3.5 Other Useful Tools ....................................................................................................................................... 12 3.5.1 Medical Neurosciences Website .......................................................................................................... 12 3.5.2 Neuroscience Forum ............................................................................................................................ 12 3.5.3 E-books ................................................................................................................................................. 12 4. Graduation ................................................................................................................................................. 13 4.1 Opening of the PhD-Procedure (Eröffnung des Promotionsverfahrens)...................................................... 13 4.2 Transcript .................................................................................................................................................... 13 4.3 Degree ......................................................................................................................................................... 13 4.4 Leaving Berlin .............................................................................................................................................. 13 4.5 Alumni ......................................................................................................................................................... 14

Student Handbook MSc Program – Team

The program office! These are the people in the MedNeuro program office who will be by your side the next few years. Of course, they cannot perform miracles and they do not have the answer to every question you can think of, but they will assist you as best they can to find solutions to your problems and answers to your questions. Lutz Steiner studied Political Science and International Studies in Munich, Los Angeles and Chicago. In 2001, his interest in the internationalization of higher education led him to Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, where he runs the program office of the International Graduate Program Medical Neurosciences. His central goal is to introduce innovative structures for the training of young scientists based on scientific excellence, international visibility, competitiveness and service. Email: [email protected] Tel.: 030 – 2093 4582 Benedikt Salmen is the Senior Scientific Officer for Medical Neurosciences. He holds a degree in Biochemistry and received his PhD at the Center of Molecular Neurobiology in Hamburg. Since 2004 he has been working as a scientist at the Neuroscience Research Center of the Charité in Berlin. His academic expertise includes the field of synaptic and intrinsic plasticity. He teaches a number of courses in the program. Email: [email protected] Tel.: 030 – 2093 4583

Hu-Ping Chen is the program officer at Medical Neurosciences. He came from the Department of Psychiatry, where he coordinated the PhD program “Neuropsychiatry and Psychology of Aging” At Medical Neurosciences he is looking forward to the chance to support successful education, excellent research and science. Another goal is to promote communication and interaction between scientists. Email: [email protected] Tel.: 030 – 2093 4585

Petra Wienzek is a foreign language correspondent for English and French. She worked in the steel industry and looks back on 14 years of experience as interpreter, team assistant, support staff, and secretary. Since July 2009, she has been working as Assistant in the Program Office for Medical Neurosciences. Email: [email protected] Tel.: 030 – 2093 4586

Ralf Ansorg is studying Computer Science at Technische Universität Berlin. Since October 2008 he has been working as an IT Assistant for Medical Neurosciences. Email: [email protected] Tel.: 030 – 2093 4584

Student Handbook MSc Program – The Program

1. On the Program 1.1 Goals and Philosophy of the Program Medical Neurosciences focuses on translational research. The main objective is to bridge the gap between successes at the bench and – currently - less than satisfactory treatment at the bedside. PhD students are an important piece in this puzzle as their projects explore complex questions that still need answers. They perform many of the experiments and generate much of the data needed for the advancement of our understanding of brain function and malfunction. It is through them, too, that lab leaders and principle investigators come together, develop joint projects, expand their interdisciplinary reach, and establish new and complimentary methodologies. In sum, the hype on what German rhetoric calls wissenschaftlicher Nachwuchs is justified. PhDs – and subsequently junior group leaders – need support and perspectives, because they are keys to the future of science. With that in mind, the leading neuroscientists in Berlin introduced the International Graduate Program Medical Neurosciences (MedNeuro) back in 2001. The goal was to train aspiring scientists in a Master and PhD program to strengthen their own research groups. Initially funded by the DAAD as one of the first international PhD programs in Germany, MedNeuro has developed into a corner stone of the neuroscience landscape in Berlin, in fact, in Germany. It has been a pioneer in setting up structured PhD education and was the model for initiatives like the Berlin School of Mind and Brain, the PhD Program Computational Neuroscience or the Humboldt Graduate School. As of 2008, MedNeuro has become an integral part of the Cluster of Excellence NeuroCure. Through the cluster, more than 10 excellent new professors have been appointed in Berlin, are teaching in the MSc program and supervise PhD students in numerous projects. A dozen of our PhD students receive their funding from the cluster and five Master students have been awarded NeuroCure stipends. Last but not least, NeuroCure adds a scientific coordinator to the program, further increasing the academic and scientific level of the program. However, MedNeuro is not a grant funded graduate school. There is no central budget to fund students, complementary skills trainings, language classes, retreats or conference participation. For sure, the program is pooling some resources and can fund minor elements here and there. But it is primarily the PhD supervisor’s responsibility to provide the necessary funding for their students to participate in these activities. Why does MedNeuro exist, then? To provide the structure and the degrees, certainly. But more so to foster an ambiance of shared learning and research and to create a setting of mutual support based on thesis committees, peer support and mentoring. Ultimately MedNeuro stands for rigorous, cutting edge neuroscience research made in Berlin, based on good scientific practice, and to the benefit of patients in the long run. 1.1.1 Interaction with Other Programs But MedNeuro is special in another way: It interlaces with other structured PhD training programs such as the DFG-funded research training groups (GRK), EU-funded Initial Training Networks (ITN) or even the International Helmholtz Research School in Molecular Neurobiology. This is so because MedNeuro, being an official program of Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, can award the PhD and MD/PhD degree. An important aspect to you, the students, who want to walk away with a degree after all the hard work put into your PhD project. This is the reason why some students have double affiliation, with a GRK and with MedNeuro. And this is the reason, why the role of MedNeuro is not entirely clear to everyone.

1.1.2 What Can You Expect of the Program? The PhD program is open to doctoral students of any neuroscience research group in Berlin. A well developed project idea, funding and supervision needs to be guaranteed by the group leader. The program then stands for a transparent admission making sure that -

1

the research project is based on a clear hypothesis and promising methodology, following a projected time line and defined mile stones (project plan) the candidate fulfils a certain level of standard knowledge in neuroscience (admission test) the candidate understands the hypothesis and methods of his or her PhD project and can communicate that to a non-expert audience (project presentation)


Being a PhD program, MedNeuro offers a number of structural elements above and beyond the traditional stand alone PhD project (Individualpromotion), such as -

thesis committee agreement of supervision scientific training in addition to the PhD project complementary skills training eLearning tool platform for scientific and extracurricular interaction and networking student services provided by the program office

These features are described in detail throughout this handbook.

1.1.3 What Does the Program Expect of You? Most of all, we expect you to be passionate about research. We want you to be creative in your thinking, comprehensive in your approach and diligent in your experiments. We want you to become an active member of the Berlin neuroscience community, sharing your research findings, challenging broad and general assumptions, and actively participating discussions. We do know that the daily routine of lab work, the frustration of fruitless experiments and the feeling of being left alone will often get in the way of the above mentioned expectations. But that is what research is all about, failure and frustration which will eventually give way to success and gratification, to a feeling of achievement and recognition. Keep that in mind! In addition to the lofty claims above, we do expect you to do the following, mundane yet important things: -

keep up the standards of good scientific practice meet regularly with your supervisor and thesis committee attend the PhD Days and the NeuroscienceColloquium present your progress annually at the Berlin Brain Days (talk or poster) keep a careful record of your training activities both scientific and complementary skills assist in the teaching and mentoring of junior students bring up problems that may lead to an early termination of your project as soon as they arise and make use of the thesis committee and ombudsperson to resolve them

1.2 Program Structure As figure 1.1 illustrates, the program is based on 3 pillars: Research project, science training and complementary skills training. The most significant of these pillars the PhD project. You will spend most of your time in the lab, at the bench, carrying out the experiments, generating data and evaluating it. You will participate regularly in the lab meeting, presenting your own work and constructively engaging in the work presented by your lab mates. Proportionally, this makes up for 6/5 of your time. The remaining 1/6 is to be spent on science training not directly related to your project and on complementary skills training.

2


Figure 1

In terms of scientific training, you need to -

attend the PhD Days attend the Neuroscience Colloquium or a comparable lecture series present your research annually at the Berlin Brain Days (BBD) attend at least one additional national or international meeting (with active participation)

To make sure you do not leave the program without the basic complementary skills needed by today’s scientists you do need to attend a course/training in each of the following topics and show for the acquired skills in a practical exercise/application: -

good scientific practice as part of the PhD day 1/year statistics if not taken at the Master level scientific presentation – application: presentation at a public meeting scientific writing – application: writing a review for the MedNeuro newsletter or publishing an original paper or review article grant application writing – application: a grant application for the post-doc position or a research project

Additional courses can be taken based on your training needs and research interests. A detailed list of mandatory and optional training is included in the Studienbuch.

1.3 Formalities 1.3.1 ECTS and Credit Points In total, you need to show for 30 ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) credit points (CP) to complete the program. We follow the established rule of 1 CP = 30h of time invested by you, both in preparing for or attending training To give you some examples, we credit the typical trainings as follows: 3

Neuroscience Colloquium: 1 CP if you attended at least 80% of the talks per semester other lecture series of about 15 talks: 0.5 CP if you attended at least 80% of the talks conference attendance: 0.2 CP per day Berlin Brain Days: 1 CP joining the organizing committee of the BBD: 1 CP active contribution in form of a poster or talk presented: 1 CP


-

Workshop or Seminars: 30h = 1 CP Journal Club: 2 CP per year 1-day complementary skills training: 0.5 CP 2-day complementary skills training: 1 CP Organization of course: 2xh st nd Teaching: giving a Seminar/course : 1 time: 5xh, 2 time: 3xh Supervising Lab Rotation/MSc Thesis: 1 CP per year (the head has to sign it) 1 scientific article / Review of 3 articles in the newsletter: 1 CP (after accepted review of Benedikt Salmen)

1.3.2 Documentation of Your CP In the end, you need to show that you have collected the required 30 CP in the various mandatory and optional trainings. To do so, use the Studienbuch attached to this Handbook to log what you have done and collect all attendance certificates or other proof. When you get ready to submit your thesis, you need to submit this information electronically and come by the program office to present the documentation supporting your table.

1.3.3 A Word on Attendance The quest for knowledge is what brought you to this program. You want to learn and to become a good scientist. In the best of all possible worlds, we would not have to say anything more. You all attend all PhD days and colloquia and whatever other training you seek. But this world is imperfect and humans are fallible. That is why we will not give credit to trainings of which you have missed more than 20% of the training time. So if you only show up one day of a two day workshop, no credit. If you miss more than 3 out of 15 Neuroscience Colloquium sessions, no credit. If you only attend 1 or 2 of 6 Berlin Brain Day sessions, no credit... You get the picture.

1.3.4 Student Representatives In order to integrate student opinion into the developments of the program, there is a PhD student representative and her/his deputy. As of now, there is no formal role for this representative, i.e. s/he is not a formal member of any commission, but s/he is always welcome to raise issues of importance to the PhDs. S/he can approach the program office, the scientific coordinator or any of the chairing professors at any time. In addition, the representative’s role is to motivate PhDs to be active in the program, to plan and participate in scientific and extracurricular events, and to contribute to an atmosphere of mutual understanding and trust. An election will take place whenever a current representative is “retiring” from her/his post. Be it that s/he graduates or the s/he would like to hand over the role to another PhD .

4

Student Handbook MSc Program – Getting Started

2 Getting Started 2.1. Thesis Committee and Agreement on the Terms of Supervision Three issues have been clarified before even applying to Medical Neurosciences: your supervisor, the set up of your research project and the funding of your position. The next step is to define a thesis committee for you that will guide you throughout the PhD phase. It is this committee to which you regularly report progress in your project, that can help you identify your training needs and council you on career matters. Therefore, you need to devote some time and thinking into the selection of your committee. -

-

-

Your primary supervisor is a member ex officio, a second senior faculty and a junior scientist will complement the committee. The roles of each are different, but they all contribute to your success: Primary supervisor: This is your boss. S/he very much determines your project and provides the necessary funding. As a member of her/his research group, you meet regularly and discuss the results of your work. Second supervisor: This experienced scientist can judge the project and the progress you make over all. S/he gives important input and possibly points to complementary or further research questions to be addressed or methodologies to be tried. S/he also serves as a door opener in career aspects and helps you find your future path.

Third supervisor: This junior person may be a post-doc in your group. S/he will show you around in the lab, help you set up your methods, guide you in all aspects of your daily interaction in the lab. While the primary and second supervisor are required by the program, the third, more junior person is optional. In order to find the right supervisors for you, turn to your primary supervisor or the Scientific Coordinator of the program, Dr. Benedikt Salmen. Once you have decided on your thesis committee, you need to formalize this relationship by signing an agreement. You find the form attached to this handbook. Here, the rights and obligations of all signing parties are explained. The signed agreement needs to be turned into the program office for filing.

2.2 Mentoring Being successful at science is not just a matter of solid knowledge, diligent research and good publications, it also very much depends on having good role models, knowing whom to turn to and understanding the politics of science. To help with the latter, we set up a cascading mentoring model: the experienced help the less experienced, the small questions are answered by more junior people, the big questions by more senior ones. Beginning with your thesis committee (see above), you have one main supervisor who is very much involved in your research project. In addition, you have a co-supervisor who may or may not be form the same discipline/field and whose role is more that of a critical thinker in terms of your project and mentor in term of your career path. Thirdly, you have a post-doc in the committee who will help you hands on with your project, and who will help you getting settled in your new environment, your research group. In return and once you have been working in your group for about one year, we would like you to assist MSc students as mentor, helping them along in their course work, with their lab rotations or thesis and sharing your insights into the Berlin neuroscience landscape.

5


2.3 Matriculation Most importantly: for PhD students matriculation is optional. You do not have to matriculate, but you can. What benefits does matriculation bring you? -

student ID with all benefits following that semester ticket (public transport) if you opt for it

But in order to do your PhD work and to in the end submit and defend you thesis, you do NOT need to matriculate. If you choose to do so, so need to fill in a matriculation form and submit a number of additional documents to the Studienabteilung. You will then get your matriculation papers including the semester ticket in the mail. Along with the form, you’ll have to submit: -

Copy of your admission letter (Zulassung zur Promotion by Promotionskommission (PK) Certified copy of your high school diploma and transcript – MedNeuro can certify if you present the original Certified copy of your Bachelor and Master diploma (or equivalent) – MedNeuro can certify if you present the original These documents have to be in German or English. Otherwise you have to submit a certified translation as well Students with a German degree: Exmatrikulationsbescheiningung of your previous institution International students: residence permit (EU-citizens: Freizügigkeitsbescheinigung) Receipt for the first semester payment

Bring along your passport or Personalausweis to the matriculation office! Matriculation for all following semesters is simply done by wire transferring the semester fee by the given deadline to the Charité bank account. Information on how much and by when to pay is provided with your matriculation papers. Should you miss the deadline, there is an extended period by which to pay, but you have to add a late fee. Should you miss this deadline as well, you will be exmatriculated (i.e. loose your student status)!

Your matriculation includes your semester ticket. This ticket allows you to travel in zones A, B and C of the Berlin public transportation agency BVG. You do have to carry a form of official ID with you in order for the ticket to be valid. And do NOT laminate your ticket.

6


2.4 The Office in Charge: Studienabteilung For all matriculation issues, you need to see the Studienabteilung. You find them at Virchowweg 24 of the Mitte Campus, right by the entrance Hannoversche Straße.

Your contact person there is: Ms. Susanne Bednareck Phone: 450 576152 Mail: [email protected] As she is currently on leave, contact: Ms. Helga Spandel Phone: 450 576152 Mail: [email protected] You find them both in room 0032

2.5 The PhD-Committee (Promotionskommission) You have already dealt with the Promotionskommission (PK) when applying for the PhD. This is the commission in charge of all matters regarding doctoral thesis and degrees at Charité. You find detailed information on the commission online at: http://promotion.charite.de The most important thing for you to know is that this commission will in the end award the PhD degree according to the regulations spelled out in the Promotionsordnung (the rules on how to get the PhD and MD/PhD in Medical Neurosciences). You find these regulations on our or on the PK website. The office that will help you comply by these rules when getting ready to submit your thesis is the Promotionsbüro. See chapter 4 for details.

7

Student Handbook MSc Program – Tools

3 Important Tools 3.1 The Mailing List As we communicate to all PhD students at the same time via our mailing list, it is critical if you log off. The program office will include you automatically with the e-mail address we have on file. You can add or exchange for other addresses of your choice. To do so, you must use a Charité networked computer (or VPN) and go to: http://mailman.charite.de/mailman/listinfo/medneuro-phd You can view this page in English by selecting this option on the top right hand corner. As subscriber, you can send your own mails to the list as well. Simply mail to: [email protected]. Please only send mails of general interest and use common sense and netiquette when mailing to the list.

3.2 E-Learning - Introduction to Blackboard The Medical Neurosciences program uses the learning management system ‘Blackboard’ to supplement your studies. You can access it anytime from anywhere in the world at http://lms.charite.de. We strongly suggest you bookmark this link.

3.2.1 Login and Password In order to access Blackboard, you will have to register and open an account. You can only do so yourself, once you have received a matriculation number. If you do not matriculate, contact the program office to open an account.

”My Institution” If you have logged in successfully you will be able to access your individual entry site “My Institution” which has the following structure:

8


Under My Institution and Courses you will find all relevant information about your courses.

Here you will find help using Blackboard (FAQ), mostly in German. See also “Hotline”

Your personal tool box:

Content

Announcements: to view news about the courses Calendar: to edit personal data Tasks: to set up your own tasks Send E-mail: to write an email to your fellow students, your teachers or the program coordinators User Directory: to search for other users View Grades: to view your own grades Address Book: to add personal addresses Personal Information: to edit personal information (email address etc.) and change the password

Your can modify the content and the layout however you like. At present, Announcements and Courses are particularly important for you.

Some helpful hints: 

Do not forget to change the password! Where?: In the Tool Box on “My Institution” there is a link Personal Information/Change Password.



If you want to change the language within Blackboard from German to English you also have to go to Personal Information/Set Language Pack.



When you receive your Charité email address you can go to Personal Information and change your email address to make sure that everybody else is using the Charité address when sending an email to you.

3.2.2 What do PhD students find in Blackboard? We are still developing our ideas for how to utilize Blackboard for PhDs. Please let us know what you would like to see there. What features do you find useful? How would you like to work with Blackboard? For now, you will find a community called Medical Neurosciences PhD when you log in. We post information on the PhD day there including information on the host, topic, location etc. We can also upload papers that prepare for the topic and slides of the talks presented.

9


3.2.3 Hotline If you have any questions regarding Blackboard do not hesitate to contact the Blackboard-SupportTeam: -

Phone support: 030 - 450 576 450 (Mo to Fr from 10:00 to 15:00 Uhr) E-mail support: [email protected] Phone support: 030 - 838 54900 (Mo to Fr from 10:00 to 17:00) E-mail support: [email protected]

If you have any questions regarding the content in Blackboard do not hesitate to contact the program office.

3.3 Virtual Private Network (VPN) With the VPN software you are able to access for example databases from the Charité library at home. You need a Charité email address. If you are interested in the VPN-access, please come to the Medical Neurosciences office so that we can fill in the application form together. After your VPN application form has been approved you will have to install and configure the OpenVPN-client software. 











Download the OpenVPN client at http://www.openvpn.net/index.php/opensource/downloads.html (Charité currently recommends version 2.1 RC 16 [http://www.openvpn.net/release/openvpn-2.1_rc16-install.exe]). Double-click the executable installation file and follow the instructions. During the installation process, you will come across a warning message regarding the installation of the so-called TAP-Win32 Adapter. Note that you have to confirm the installation of the adapter. Copy or move your personal certificate (client.p12) — which has been sent to you by email — into the configuration directory of your OpenVPN installation (e.g. C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\config). Download the configuration file at http://webmail.charite.de/doku/openvpn/windows/charite.ovpn and copy or move it to the configuration directory (see above). Start the OpenVPN client. Note that you have to start the application with administrator’s privileges (e.g. after right-clicking, in the context menu choose an entry similar to “run as administrator”)! Now, an (red-colored) icon similar to those of network devices should have appeared, near the clock on the lower-right corner of the desktop. Right-click on this icon and choose “connect”. A box requesting username and password should now pop up. Authenticate yourself with your username (either of firstname.surname, your Charité email address, e.g. [email protected]), and password. Your password consists of the last two digits of your matriculation number, the lowercase first letter of your surname, and your Dienstleitungsnummer (see section Charité E-Mail Account). Example: Your surname is Doe, your matriculation number is 1234567, and your Dienstleitungsnummer is 4223. Your password would be 67d4223.

Setting up the proxy: 

Note that with an active vpn connection you have to modify your browser’s proxy settings. For example, go to Firefox’ connection settings, click “Automatic proxy configuration URL” and enter http://proxy.charite.de. Also note that you have to uncheck (or change) this option once your vpn connection is closed.

You should now be able to access internal page, e.g. http://www.charite.de/intranet/. You can access more comprehensive installation guides at http://webmail.charite.de/doku/openvpn/. The guides are, however, in German.

10


3.4 Charité E-Mail Account After matriculating at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, each student will automatically be provided with an email account by the Charité IT-Center. Login information for your particular account can be found in the documents you will receive from the Studienabteilung after your enrolment has been processed. Step 1 – Wait for your Matriculation Documents In your documents you will find a four-digit personal identification number called Dienstleistungsnummer. This number is personal and highly confidential and will remain in service as long as you are enrolled as a student at Charité.

Step 2 – Retrieving your Account Information concerning your email address can found by going to: https://zugang.charite.de.

You will find your matriculation number (Matrikelnummer) in your matriculation documents. Your password consists of the following items: 1. the last two numbers of your matriculation number (Matrikelnummer) 2. the first character of your last name (in small type!) 3. your personal identification number (Dienstleistungsnummer) which can be found on your registration form

11


Example: Student Edgar Example, matriculation number 207777, personal identification number 6427, has the preset password 77e6427. Upon logging in you will view your personal information concerning your email account such as your email address, your username and your preset password. With these items you will be able to use your email account. Step 3 – Using your Email Account You can access your email account via https://webmail.charite.de

After entering username (Name) and password (as in access to personal information) your account will be at your disposal. Please make sure you change your preset password when you login for the first time! Please inform us if you intend to use your “@charite.de” address in the future! We will then change your contact details.

3.5 Other Useful Tools 3.5.1 Medical Neurosciences Website We have compiled a number of useful links both for scientific and extracurricular issues on our website. Check out the links compiled at: http://www.medical-neurosciences.de/en/program/resources_and_links/

3.5.2 Neuroscience Forum If you would like to get in touch with senior students of the program, please check out our student run forum www.neuroscience-forum.net. Here, you can review student profiles, ask questions on the program (MSc and PhD) and discuss neuroscience questions of interest to you.

3.5.3 E-books Some of the resources for the modules are presented in the form of e-books. You are able to access them from all Charité computers or via VPN at home. Be aware that only a limited number of users are able to access these e-books at the same time. . 12

Student Handbook MSc Program – Graduation

4. Graduation 4.1 Opening of the PhD-Procedure (Eröffnung des Promotionsverfahrens) PhD students complete the program by: - Having completed the required course curriculum - Submitting the thesis - Defending the thesis The process of doing so has the charming German name of Eröffnung des Promotionsverfahrens and the office in charge of this process is the Promotionsbüro. It is there that you need to submit your thesis. It is them who select the reviewers and it is them who schedule the defense date and committee. So make sure you check there for the exact detail on what do, how, when and where: If you were admitted before October of the current year: http://promotion.charite.de/promotion/promovend/phd_mdphd/phd_mdphd_hu/ If you were admitted after October of the current year http://promotion.charite.de/promotion/promovend/phd_mdphd/phd_mdphd_neu/ The Promotionsbüro offers advice and guidance in English on Fridays. The two colleagues in charge are: Ms. Manuela Hirche: [email protected] Ms. Silke Hagenbruch: [email protected] See also: http://promotion.charite.de/ueber_uns/team/

4.2 Transcript Before you begin the process of graduation with the Promotionsbüro, you need to get a transcript from the program office to show that you have completed the curricular requirements. Make an appointment and come by with the documentation of your work as collected in the Studienbuch.

4.3 Degree Your final grade for your doctoral degree is a combination of the reviewer’s grading and your performance in the defense. The grading scheme is -

summa cum laude (excellent) magna cum laude (very good) cum laude (good) rite (satisfactory) non sufficit (not sufficient)

You will be told immediately after the defense, what your final grade is. But it will still take some time until you get you degree certificate, the Promotionsurkunde. The document carries the seal and signatures of Charité, Humboldt-Universität and Freie Universität. This is your official PhD degree and you can call yourself PhD only after having received it.

4.4 Leaving Berlin If you plan to move on after graduation, be it to start a post-doc somewhere else or to get a job in industry, you need to complete the following steps: -

-

13

Exmatrikulation at the Studienabteilung if you have been matriculated (see above) Checkout (Abmeldung) at the registration office (Bürgeramt / Meldestelle) The respective forms and a listing of Bürgerämter is available at: http://www.berlin.de/buergeramt/dienstleistungen/index.php?dienstleistung=65097 Cancellation of your rental agreement, electricity and telephone service etc.

Student Handbook MSc Program – Graduation

4.5 Alumni The program is fairly small and intimate and we will get to know you as much as you will get to know us. Thus we are, of course, interested in keeping in touch with you. We have a mailing list for alumni via which we send information to our former students: [email protected]. As a member of this list, you can also send your messages to the list if you want to contact other alumni, have a job or research position to advertise or any other issue of general interest to former students. Once a year, we will organize an alumni meeting. The idea is to give you an opportunity to meet some of your old friends, to let you see what has happened in Berlin since you left, to be able to keep abreast on hot neuroscience topics and to share your post program experience with current students. We’ll schedule the alumni meeting at the same time as the graduation of the Master students, i.e. usually in November or October. Funds permitting, we do award a few travel grants to make attendance feasible for alumni who have moved away. If you have any suggestions, please let us know. Your contributions, ideas, criticism etc. is always welcome. In fact, it is critical so that we can tailor the alumni work to your needs and expectations.

14