The “traditional” doctorate

The individual doctorate with a professor is still the most common way to earn a doctorate in Germany. As a research-intensive university with a broad range of subjects, Freie Universität Berlin offers the best opportunities for this.

The “structured” doctorate in a program

In addition to the individual doctorate, the “structured doctorate”, e.g. in a graduate school or a research training group of the German Research Foundation, has become firmly established in recent years. It is characterized by the following formal features compared to the individual doctorate:

• a fixed curriculum, including compulsory courses on research integrity
• formalized supervision through supervision agreements
• supervision by at least two supervisors
• increased professional and social integration of the doctoral researchers.