What is a structured doctorate?

The structured doctorate in a program is an alternative and optional extension to the individual doctorate. It creates an additional doctoral opportunity, offers specialized training and close, often interdisciplinary supervision, and in many cases significant funding for its doctoral candidates and their research projects. There are many different names for the “structured doctorate” or the “doctoral program”. The types of programs commonly used in Germany are “doctoral” or “graduate programs”, “research training groups” and “graduate schools”. The program types differ in the number of doctoral students they supervise, the binding nature of the curriculum, the thematic breadth and their financial resources.

Common features of doctoral programs

What they have in common is that (1) they are supported by a group of professors who come from different subjects or disciplines, that (2) they develop their own forms of exchange and program-specific teaching, that (3) the doctoral researchers have to apply for the program, are selected and accepted into the program together at a certain point in time, which leads to a close cohesion of the doctoral candidates, and that the programs (4) are administered by a coordinator who supervises the doctoral researchers in all non-academic matters.

Applying for a place on a structured doctoral program

In contrast to an individual doctorate, you apply directly to the office responsible for your chosen doctoral program. The application and selection procedure is carried out by the respective program. The calls for applications can be found on the respective websites of the doctoral programs. It is often only possible to apply on one or two dates per year. However, if it is a Research Training Group (RTG) that is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), calls for applications are only issued every two to three years. In the calls for applications you will also find information on the required documents as well as the requirements and application prerequisites (e.g. very good academic performance, special language requirements).

Admission to doctoral studies

In addition to the application and selection procedure of the program, it is important to submit an application for admission to doctoral research at the relevant department. Please note that admission to a doctoral program does not require admission as a doctoral researcher by the department. Both procedures, the application and selection procedure of the program and the admission procedure at the department, are completely independent of each other. For many doctoral programs, admission to doctoral research is a prerequisite for the program's application procedure.

In addition to the written confirmation of supervision by the professor, further documents are required for the application for admission. You can find out exactly which documents are required from the examination or doctoral office of the relevant department. However, you must always submit proof of your most recent university degree. The examinations office will then check whether you meet the formal requirements for admission to the doctorate and, if necessary, impose conditions for final admission..