Doctoral Studies

Please note: An application for admission to the doctoral procedure must be submitted to the responsible subject doctoral committee before work on the doctoral dissertation project commences.

Application for admission to doctoral procedures

We only process applications for admission electronically! Application documents in paper form are not requested, but also not accepted!

The following application documents must be prepared in electronic form for the online application for admission to doctoral procedures and submitted compulsorily as part of the online application:

• Copies of your degree certificates (e.g. bachelor’s and master’s degree): certificate of academic degree, transcript of records, diploma supplement (if issued and already available)¹
  1_{If your degree certificates are issued in another language than German or English, please submit a certified translation (in German or English) of your
  degree certificates.}

• Completed and fully signed supervision agreement: Please use this form only.
• Copy of certificate of higher education entrance eligibility (secondary school leaving certificate: dt. Abitur/Reifezeugnis)
• Completed and fully research project outline: Please use this form only.
• Copy of identification document (e.g. ID card, passport, visa)
• Curriculum vitae and if available, publication list
• Only if applicable: Statement attesting that you have previously applied for a doctorate at another higher education institution, in another faculty of Universität Hamburg or in another department of the MIN Faculty of Universität Hamburg (including details on the application).

The online application is done through Docata-MIN and includes two sections:

Section 1

1. Register in Docata-MIN: Create user account and set password
2. Log in to Docata-MIN with the login data of the user account and fill in the online application for admission to doctoral procedures.
3. Complete the first section of the online application and download the PDF application file Application for admission to doctoral procedures: tick the applicable declarations in the PDF application file and sign the Application for admission to doctoral procedures by yourself and having it signed by the other persons/entities listed in the application².
   2_{Scanned and electronic signatures are allowed.}

Section 2

Log in to Docata-MIN and complete the second section of the online application: upload the fully signed Application for admission to doctoral procedures and the remaining application documents (see above) in ONE PDF file (max. size 20 MB) to Docata-MIN and submit via Docata-MIN.

Please note: Only complete applications can be processed. If application documents of the mandatory documents listed above are missing or signatures are missing, the application cannot be submitted to the Subject Doctoral Committee. In such a case you will be informed by us and you will have to repeat the online application (section 1 and/or section 2)! To avoid this, we ask you to submit the above-mentioned application documents completely and signed within the online application.

In the FAQ for the online application for admission to doctoral procedures linked here, you will find all information about the application process with screenshots for all sections. Please make sure to read them before you start the online application process.

We would like to point out that you must also hold your disputation within the admission period.

You can make a change to your correspondence email address on your own at any time until the oral defense is held after logging into Docata-MIN on the home page via the link Update your personal contact details in Docata now. You will find instructions on how to do this in this FAQ.

Enrolment and Duration

• Enrolment: Doctoral candidates at Universität Hamburg must enroll as members of Universität Hamburg. They must submit their enrollment application to Campus Center. To do so, please follow the link in your admission letter to the STINE portal.

At Universität Hamburg doctoral students must be enrolled for the duration of their doctoral studies in accordance with the Hamburg Higher Education Act (Hamburgisches Hochschulgesetz, HmbHG) and the MIN Doctoral Degree Regulations.

• Duration: As a rule, doctoral studies in the natural sciences take three to four years. This period is devoted to research on a specific topic and concludes with a dissertation (written doctoral thesis) and oral defense (presentation and discussion). If the doctoral dissertation is not submitted within the admission period of four years and the oral defense is not held within the admission period it is possible to extend the admission period by submitting the application for extension of admission to doctoral procedures (scanned / electronic signatures are permitted) to the academic office.

We only process applications to open the doctorate proceedings (i.e. submission of the dissertation for evaluation) electronically! Application documents in paper form (except 1 examination copy of the dissertation in paper form for archiving purposes) are not requested, but also not accepted!

The following application documents must be prepared in electronic form for the online application to open the doctorate proceedings and submitted compulsorily as part of the online application:

• Current enrollment certificate (= semester certificate)
• Only if not already submitted during the application process for admission to doctoral procedures: Copy of identification document (e.g. ID card, passport, visa)¹
  1_{Please note: If you have changed your name after admission to doctoral procedures (e.g. due to marriage) and have not yet reported the name change to us (at the Academic Office), attach the relevant proof of the name change (e.g. marriage certificate) to the rest of the application documents.}
• Only if applicable: Proof of interruptions of your doctorate
• Attention: At least 5 members must always be proposed for the examination committee. Of these, 2 experts and at least one non-specialist member.
• For a cumulative dissertation, three reviewers must be appointed, including an external reviewer.

The online application is done through Docata-MIN and includes two sections:

 Section 1

1. Log in to Docata-MIN with the login data of your user account (see FAQ for further information) and fill in the online application to open the doctorate proceedings.

2. Complete the first section of the online application and download the PDF application file Application to open the doctorate proceedings: tick the applicable declarations in the PDF application file and sign the Application to open the doctorate proceedings by yourself and having it signed by the other persons/entities listed in the application².
   2_{Scanned and electronic signatures are allowed.}

Section 2

Log in to Docata-MIN and complete the second section of the online application: upload the fully signed Application to open the doctorate proceedings and the remaining application documents (see above) in ONE PDF file (max. size 20 MB) to Docata-MIN and submit via Docata-MIN.

Please note: Only complete applications can be processed. If application documents of the mandatory documents listed above are missing or signatures are missing, the application cannot be submitted to the Subject Doctoral Committee. In such a case you will be informed by us and you will have to repeat the online application (section 1 and/or section 2)! To avoid this, we ask you to submit the above-mentioned application documents completely and signed within the online application. Please do not forget to submit 1 examination copy of the dissertation in paper form for archiving purposes with us and please note the following about the dissertation (doctoral thesis) you are submitting for evaluation with this application:

• Only one printed bound copy of the dissertation must be submitted for archiving to us, the responsible Academic Office (e.g. by mail). No further hard/paper copies of the dissertation need to be submitted to us at the Academic Office.
• Both the printed bound copy of the dissertation and the dissertation submitted in electronic form (via the Docata upload) must contain the declaration upon oath signed by the doctoral candidate.
• Upon request, you will provide the appointed members of the examination commission and the reviewers (assessors) each with an additional bound hard copy of the dissertation. Agreements are to be made bilaterally between you and the appointed reviewers (assessors) and examination commission members; the Academic Office is not involved in this coordination/agreement process. This bound hard copy of the dissertation must contain a declaration written and signed by you in which you declare that the copy and the dissertation submitted in electronic form (via the Docata upload) and the printed bound copy of the dissertation submitted to the Academic Office for archiving are identical.

In the FAQ for the online application to open the doctorate proceedings linked here, you will find all information about the application process with screenshots for all sections. Please make sure to read them before you start the online application process.

The time between the submission of the dissertation and the disputation is approx. 3 months.

You can make a change to your correspondence email address on your own at any time until the oral defense is held after logging into Docata-MIN on the home page via the link Update your personal contact details in Docata now. You will find instructions on how to do this in this FAQ.

PLEASE note the instruction sheets for conducting oral defenses in the MIN Faculty 

• Instruction sheet for conducting oral defenses by videoconference in the MIN Faculty (PDF)
• Instruction sheet for conducting fully digital oral defenses by videoconference in the MIN Faculty (PDF)

After the dissertation has been accepted and an appointment has been made with the examination board, please submit the following form to the study office:

• Registration for the disputation (PDF)

Since we process doctoral procedures electronically, for data protection reasons we ask you to contact us via

•   a uni-hamburg.de email address
•   or a studium.uni-hamburg.de email address
•   or an email address of the email domains chemie.uni-hamburg.de, informatik.uni-hamburg.de, zbh.uni-hamburg.de, hs.uni-hamburg.de, physik.uni-hamburg.de, physnet.uni-hamburg.de, uke.de or zmnh.uni-hamburg.de

to communicate and submit the above mentioned documents.