Doing a PhD in Germany

1. Two routes to a doctorate

German doctoral education works differently from the structured graduate school model common in the English-speaking world, and the difference explains why the process can feel opaque from outside.

2. Finding a supervisor

For an individual doctorate, the supervisor is the gate. Nothing else can be arranged until a professor has agreed to take you on, and no central admissions office can do this for you.

The approach that works is specific and researched. Read the group’s recent publications, identify a genuine gap or extension your work would address, and write a short email that demonstrates you have done that. A generic message with an attached CV, sent to fifty professors, produces nothing.

1. 1

   Identify the research groups actually working on your topic

   Search publications rather than university rankings. The right supervisor is defined by subject overlap, not by institutional prestige.

2. 2

   Check the faculty doctoral regulations

   Each faculty has its own Promotionsordnung setting out what degree you need, whether your Master’s is sufficient, and any language requirement. Read it before you write.

3. 3

   Write a short, specific approach

   A paragraph on why their work specifically, a paragraph on what you would contribute, and a CV. Attach a brief research outline if you have one.

4. 4

   Prepare a research proposal

   Once there is interest, you will normally be asked for a proper proposal: question, state of the art, method, timeline.

5. 5

   Get written confirmation of supervision

   This letter is what the faculty registration, the funding application and the visa all depend on.

6. 6

   Register as a doctoral candidate

   Formal acceptance by the faculty. Some universities also require enrolment as a student, others do not.

3. How doctorates are funded

This is the part that most surprises applicants from fee-paying systems. A German doctorate generally has no tuition, and a large share of doctoral researchers are paid employees of the university or a research institute.

An employment contract means a salary on the public sector pay scale, usually at a fraction of a full-time post in the humanities and a higher fraction in the sciences, with social insurance, pension contributions and paid holiday. It also means teaching or project duties alongside your own research.

The alternative is a scholarship, which is normally tax-free but comes without social insurance, so health insurance has to be arranged and paid separately. Neither is straightforwardly better: the contract pays more and demands more of your time, the scholarship protects your time and pays less.

• Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter: a university employment contract, with teaching or project duties
• A position on a funded research project, tied to that project’s duration
• A doctoral scholarship from DAAD, a political foundation, or a research organisation
• Positions at Max Planck, Helmholtz, Fraunhofer or Leibniz institutes, usually contracts
• Industry doctorates, employed by a company and supervised at a university

4. Requirements and how long it takes

You normally need a Master’s degree or an equivalent qualification, and a strong one: doctoral regulations often set a minimum grade. An exceptional Bachelor’s can occasionally suffice through a fast-track route, but this is unusual and faculty-specific.

Three to five years is the realistic range, and in the humanities longer is common. Where your funding is a fixed-term contract shorter than that, understand from the outset how the remaining time is to be funded, because this is the most common way German doctorates go wrong financially.

5. Residence permit

Which permit applies depends on how you are funded, and this has practical consequences. A doctoral researcher on an employment contract is generally treated as a researcher or qualified worker, which brings better working rights and can count more favourably towards permanent residence. A doctoral candidate on a scholarship without a contract may be on a student permit, with the work restrictions that implies.

Time spent as a doctoral researcher on an employment contract also counts towards the qualifying periods for permanent residence, so the distinction is worth understanding before you accept an arrangement.