Your path to a doctoral degree

Your path to a doctoral degree

First you will need to decide on your research topic and find a supervisor for this topic. To find a supervisor you should look carefully at the websites of the institutes and research groups in your field and contact your potential supervisor directly.

Once you have found a supervisor you need to register yourself and your doctoral project in our docDaten database in the following two-stage process:

1. Register yourself and your doctoral project in our docDaten database.
2. Submit all required documents in order to be granted admission by the Office of Doctoral Affairs. All the required documents are available for you to download from the docDaten database.

To be admitted to a doctorate, you must usually prove that you have successfully completed a Master’s degree programme in the relevant subject area that is equivalent to a Master’s degree programme from a German university. In addition, the university at which you completed your degree must be listed as H+ with the Central Office for Foreign Education. You will find specific admission requirements in the relevant Doctoral Regulations at the faculties. Please address any questions to the relevant Offices of Doctoral Affairs.

After you have registered through docDaten, you must apply for admission within 3 months, otherwise your registration will expire.

Once you have been admitted you can start your research, get results and write your doctoral thesis.

After your thesis has been officially accepted, you must defend it in an oral examination. Finally, you must publish your thesis before you can be awarded your doctoral degree.