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How to apply?

How you apply depends on the discipline you have chosen for your doctoral degree. Whilst all doctoral candidates in the natural sciences are enrolled in structured PhD programmes, the humanities and social sciences also offer individual doctoral degrees. Individual doctoral degrees are the rule at the Faculty of Law.

  • Individual doctoral degrees
  • The path to an individual doctoral degree starts with the search for a professor who is willing to supervise your doctoral studies. The topic of your doctoral thesis should be appropriate to your supervisor's field of research. The person willing to supervise your doctoral studies becomes your academic supervisor, called "Doktormutter" or "Doktorvater" in German.
    Once you have found a suitable supervisor, you must apply to the faculty responsible for you to be accepted as a doctoral candidate. Usually, there are no fixed deadlines for these applications.

  • Structured PhD programmes
  • The University of Göttingen offers a number of structured PhD programmes. These programmes provide an outstanding framework for doctoral studies by offering structured curricula, intensive supervision by a team of supervisors, mentoring programmes and a range of tailored seminars. If you would like to apply for a structured PhD programme, your selected topic should be substantively relevant to the focus of the programme. In structured PhD programmes, it is also a general rule that the candidate's first task is to find a supervisor. The exact application modalities and deadlines vary. Please visit the websites of the doctoral degree programmes for further information.


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Aufzaehlungszeichen - Promotion - 3What to do when accepted?