The Requirements for Admission to Pursue a Doctorate (doctoral student status) are set out in the Doctoral Degree Regulations of the faculty in which the research program is to be pursued. In addition to this, foreign university degrees will need to be checked for equivalence.

Please contact the faculty in the first instance for clarification of the formalities involved. The contact names can be found here.

Please submit your application for enrollment plus appendices (see instructions in the application) to the Student Secretariat, Doctoral/Post-Graduate Funding. Applications to the Faculty of Medicine must be submitted to the office of the Dean of Students, Ms Hlavacova. If you hold university qualifications from another country, the following documents must also be submitted to assist with the process of equivalence checking:

• Application for admission as a doctoral studentals
• Copies and/or scans of all university qualifications (certificates and transcripts of records, where necessary the university’s grading system) incl. translation into German or English

It is possible to enroll as a doctoral student every semester / at any time.

Please note that a doctoral research project can be completed (except if a bursary has been awarded) without enrollment and a doctoral project that has been commenced can also be ended without enrolling. Students may enroll for 10 semesters.

Comprehensive advice for international doctoral students can be found here and on the MIPS pages and in this brochure.

Additional notes

• Organizing your stay
• Health insurance for PhD students
• Official certification of documents

Conferral of Doctorate:

• Doktor-Ingenieur (Dr.-Ing.)
• doctor medicinae (Dr. med.)
• doctor philosophiae (Dr. phil.)
• doctor rerum naturalium (Dr. rer. nat.)
• doctor rerum politicarum (Dr. rer. pol.) und
• doctor rerum medicarum (Dr. rer. medic.).

After a doctorate has been awarded, an individual may continue their scientific development with an habilitation. The habilitation confers the Venia Legendi (authorization to teach) for a certain scientific field. The academic degree for habilitation (see below) is awarded if the applicant is able to demonstrate their ability to conduct research and teach in a particular scientific field. This is done by means of a professorial dissertation, a public test lecture and an habilitation colloquium. The requirements for admission to habilitation are set out in the Habilitation Regulations of the faculty in which the project is to be pursued.

Habilitation:

• Doktor-Ingenieur habilitatus (Dr.-Ing. habil.)
• doctor medicinae habilitatus (Dr. med. habil.)
• doctor philosophiae habilitatus (Dr. phil. habil.)
• doctor rerum naturalium habilitatus (Dr. rer. nat. habil.) und
• doctor rerum politicarum habilitatus (Dr. rer. pol. habil.).