Doctoral StudiesBeginning of Doctoral Studies
Doctoral Studies at the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences are determined with Doctoral degree regulations. Here you can find all information and regulations for those who are interested in doctoral studies as well as for doctoral candidates.
Assurance of a Doctoral Supervisor and Doctorate Agreement
An important prerequisite for the admission to the doctoral studies is the acceptance of a doctoral supervisor. Please find the information about the research areas of potential supervisors on their websites and enter into contact with them personally. Please take into consideration that doctoral supervisors can’t accept any amount of doctoral candidates. That is why you cannot always expect to be accepted.
After having received the assurance of a doctoral supervisor, you have to compose a proposal/exposé of your planned dissertation as well as a time schedule in consultation with him/her. Additionally, you have to complete and both of you have to sign the doctorate agreement.
Online Registration
After having completed the agreement for the doctoral studies the doctoral student has to register at the Online Portal heiDOCS:
Submission of the Documents at the Doctoral Office
Afterwards, the documents have to be submitted at the doctorate office (office of the dean). In order to be admitted, you need to hand in:
- Application for admission
- Doctorate agreement, including proposal/exposé and schedule
- CV
- A copy of your secondary school leaving certificate that qualifies you for university study (e.g. Abitur, High School Diploma, etc.)
- Certified copies of the certificates and transcripts of all of your higher education degrees. The certificates have to be either submitted in German or English, or a German or English translation has to be added. In case there are no transcripts available, a list with all absolved courses of the degree has to be submitted.
- Identity card or a copy of it
Enrollment
After you have succeeded to get admission as a doctoral candidate according to the decision of the doctoral committee you can proceed to enrolment at the university. The German citizens enroll at the Office of Student Affairs, while international doctoral candidates please refer to the Graduate Academy.
Doctoral candidates with university employment contracts with at least 50% can get exempt themselves from enrolment. You can get more information about advantages and disadvantages of enrolment for university employees at the Graduate Academy.