Office for Doctoral Affairs
- Barbara Graf
- Ulm University, Helmholtzstrasse 18, room no. 2.22
- 89081 Ulm, Germany
- Telefon: +49 (0)731/50-23553 / Telefax: +49 (0)731/50-23558
Appointment upon request via email.
Office for Doctoral Affairs - Dr. rer. pol.
Application as a Doctoral Candidate
Doctoral candidates that have been accepted after 30 March 2018 are obliged to enrol (pursuant to section 38 subsection 5 sentence 1 of the act on the higher education institutions in the Land of Baden-Württemberg (LHG)). For further information, please see the website of the Student Administration and Examinations Office.
First of all, please register filling in the online enrolment form and then enter the registration number in the application form for doctoral candidates; if you have already studied at Ulm University, you may fill in your enrolment number.
If you wish to apply for an exemption from the obligation to enrol (provided you are entitled to do so), please fill in the form and submit it together with the relevant enclosures to the Office for Doctoral Affairs.
Please submit your application to the Office for Doctoral Affairs; the following documents are required:
- Application as a doctoral candidate, in duplicate
- Doctoral Agreement, in triplicate
- university diploma, certified copy (original)
Please note that the respective German form has to be filled in.
If you have obtained your higher education degree from a non-German university you need to verify that your degree is equivalent to a German one.
Please complete the equivalence test form, include the required documents and submit it to the Office for Doctoral Affairs that will forward the documents to the Admissions office for examination.
You can also have your foreign university qualification assessed by the Central Office for Foreign Education.
Since 2017 universities have been obliged to collect data on the number and various characteristics of their doctoral candidates according to the University Statistics Law (Hochschulstatistikgesetz HStatG). Please complete the form for collecting these data after you have submitted your application form as a doctoral candidate. User name and password will be provided by the Office for Doctoral Affairs. Your name will be passed on in encrypted form. Should you have questions concening the completion of the form, please do not hesitate to contact the Office for Doctoral Affairs.
Opening of the doctoral examination procedure
For the submission of the doctoral thesis the following forms are required:
You may use this template for the co-authorship statements (cumulative doctoral thesis).
Please arrange an appointment with the Office for Doctoral Affairs for the submission or your thesis.
Please note that the respective German form has to be filled in.
After the doctoral committee has approved the opening of the doctoral examination procedure, the evaluations are requested. According to the doctoral degree regulations, the evaluations of the written doctoral thesis should be submitted within 3 months. As soon as the evaluations have been received, they are displayed for 10 working days. The professors of the faculty can inspect the evaluations during this time. Doctoral candidates also have the opportunity to see the evaluations of their dissertation during the display period.
Please make an appointment with the office for doctoral affairs if you wish to see the evaluations.
We recommend you to arrange for the publication of your doctoral thesis (§ 16 of the Framework Regulations for Doctoral Studies) as soon as the doctoral proceedings are initiated.
Please contact the kiz Publication Management in due time giving information on whether your doctoral thesis is cumulative or monographic. Please use the cover sheet template for the version of your thesis that is intended for publication.
Oral Examination
Please find information on rules and deadlindes for the setting of the oral examination date in the letter doctoral candidates will receive on submitting their doctoral thesis. Doctoral candidates will be informed via email when the thesis and the corresponding evaluations are available for inspection.
We recommend the doctoral candidate to start scheduling only after the Doctoral Committee has received the evaluations that are then available for inspection.
The doctoral candidate arranges the date for the oral examination in consultation with the members of the Examination Board (§ 9 (1) of the Doctoral Degree Regulations Dr. rer. pol.) and organizes a room and, if required, the necessary equipment (e. g. projector). External doctoral candidates may contact the secretary of their supervisor in this matter.
Binding information can only be found in the Doctoral Degree Regulations.
The oral examination proceeds as follows (duration approx. 1.5 h):
- Presentation of the doctoral thesis (approx. 30 min)
- Defense
Afterwards, the Examination Board decides whether the candidate has passed the examination and which grade is awarded in a closed session (pursuant to §12 (5) Framework Regulations for Doctoral Studies of Ulm University). Subsequently, the candidate is informed about the result of the examination and receives a provisional certificate on the result.
Binding information can only be found in the Doctoral Degree Regulations.
Regulations for doctoral studies - Guidelines on good scientific practice
Contact
7 steps to becoming a Dr. rer. pol.
Detailed information about the doctorate - including links, forms and templates