In exceptional and duly justified cases (e.g., in cases of urgent grant applications) and upon submission of the complete application for admission, the Chair can grant admission to doctoral studies in agreement with the Doctorate Board. You will then receive the notification in writing.

You can find suitable professors via literature searches on your dissertation topic or via recommendations by university lecturers at your home university. The names, research fields, and addresses of FU professors can be found under https://www.fu-berlin.de/en/einrichtungen/index.html.

When submitting your application for admission, please include the Betreuungsvereinbarung (Supervisor Agreement).

Nonbinding advance information about admission or further requirements is possible. However, it is ALWAYS the Doctorate Board that decides about the entire application for admission, and where appropriate, additional requirements (in cases of applied science university/polytechnic college degrees or insufficient grades of the existing degree) in the respective discipline.

14 days after the Doctorate Board meeting at most.

The deadline for applications for admission and dissertations is two days before the next Doctorate Board meeting, at the latest. The upcoming Doctorate Board meetings are published here.

As a rule, the Doctorate Board meets three times per semester. The Doctorate Board meetings taking place in the next semester (during the lecture period) are published here.

The work plan should be included with the application for admission. It should be no shorter than 8 pages and no longer than 16 pages. We recommend the following structure:

1. Working title, address, date
2. Table of contents
3. Overview of international research into this topic
4. Own research hypotheses
5. Methodology (e.g., for empirical studies: Sample, instruments, experimental design, data analysis, methods)
6. Timetable for each step
7. References

The application for enrollment or registration always requires the previous admission to doctoral studies.

In order to register as a doctoral student and enroll in a doctoral program, please contact the

Student Records and Registration Office
Iltisstr. 1
14195 Berlin
Ph: +49-30-838 70000
e-Mail: info-service@fu-berlin.de

The Doctorate Board appoints your Doctoral Committee and requests that the reviewers submit their evaluations to the Doctoral Study Office within 10 weeks.

You can already plan your defense date in agreement with the members of your Doctoral Committee. The earliest date is always the final day of the 14-day display period of your dissertation. The 14-day display period begins as soon as both evaluations have reached the Doctoral Study Office. As a rule, the defense can only take place within the lecture period.

The Doctoral Committee consists of:

• The two reviewers and at least two more professors and one graduated academic staff member.
• At least three (for Dr. phil.) respectively two (for Dr. rer. nat.) of the four professors in the Doctoral Committee have to be members of the department or of the FU Berlin.
• As a rule, the supervisor is a professor of the department and one of the two reviewers.
• The Doctoral Committee appoints a further reviewer in consultation with the doctoral student.
• At least one of the two reviewers has to teach at the department full-time and at least one of the two must belong to the discipline of the dissertation.
• If important methodological or factual aspects of the dissertation touch on a discipline that is mainly represented in another department, the second reviewer should belong to the Department of Education and Psychology.

When submitting your dissertation, please hand in the Antrag auf Zusammensetzung der Promotionskommission (Application on Composition of the Doctoral Committee) (please only use the linked form).

At least four professors resp. three professors and one researcher with a habilitation

1. Reviewer: Surname, first name + e-mail
2. Reviewer: Surname, first name + e-mail
3. Member: Surname, first name + e-mail
4. Member: Surname, first name + e-mail

As well as one graduated academic staff member

1. Member: Surname, first name + e-mail

You must provide at least ONE copy for your dissertation file. The other five copies for the committee members (see form) are to be submitted AFTER consultation with the committee members if needed. Submission of an electronic file of your dissertation is indispensable.

When you have handed in your dissertation at the Dissertations Department at the University Library – Hochschulschriftenstelle, you will be issued a confirmation note.

Within a month of the confirmation note’s arrival in the Doctoral Studies Office, the doctoral certificate will be issued to you (or to a person authorized by you).

If the evaluations have not been submitted within 10 weeks, please contact the Doctoral Studies Office.

There are no direct rules on this. A thesis paper can be requested by the supervisor as an introduction to the defense. These need to be submitted electronically before the defense. The theses are provided to the Committee members.

Yes, that is customary, but the written agreement of the reviewers is required first.