Doctorate

The first step towards a doctorate is to find your own doctoral topic. Either you already have your own research idea or you develop one together with a researcher at the University of Bayreuth. The preparation of a synopsis will help you to specify your research project in its goals and sub-steps.

The next step is to find a supervisor for your doctoral project. This can be a professor or a junior research group leader. It is advantageous if you have already been able to establish contact with a potential supervisor during the topic identification process. You can then contact this supervisor directly with your documents (CV, letter of motivation, etc.) and a synopsis. You can find an overview of suitable supervisors on the webpages of our faculties or our graduate centres.

Together with your supervisor, you choose the appropriate doctoral institution for your doctoral project. This is usually the faculty of your supervisor, where you can pursue an individual doctorate.    

A structured doctorate is possible in our BIGSAS and BayNAT graduate schools, both of which are also independent doctoral institutions. Further opportunities for a structured doctorate are offered by our BayKULT and BayREW graduate centres.  

The supervision agreement is an agreement between the doctoral candidate and the supervisor on the doctoral relationship. It specifies rights and obligations, but also the expectations on both sides, and puts them down in writing.    

The supervision agreement is part of the formal doctoral process and serves as quality assurance for the doctoral candidate, the supervisor, and the doctoral institution.

Now register digitally at the doctoral institution. Registration is mandatory according to all doctoral regulations of the University of Bayreuth. During registration, data is collected that must be reported annually on current doctoral projects at the University in accordance with the Act Amending the Higher Education Statistics Act (HStatG) on 2 March 2016.  

With this application, you begin the formal process towards your doctorate.   

Please contact the office named in the email sent to you after registration (dean's office of the faculty or graduate institution).   

You will also find further information on the faculty website.

Enrolment for doctoral studies offers you student benefits such as the semester ticket for public transport or low prices in the cafeteria. Enrolment is voluntary, so you even also do a doctorate at the University of Bayreuth without enrolment.   

Enrolment is possible for up to two semesters after registration on the BayDOC portal. Further enrolment from the 3rd semester onwards requires your acceptance as a doctoral candidate at the doctoral institution.

As a rule, you can be enrolled for doctoral studies for up to 8 semesters. An extension beyond this is only possible upon application and with justification from your supervisor.

The University of Bayreuth Graduate School is a support and service institution for doctoral studies and is open to all doctoral students at the University of Bayreuth. It offers an interdisciplinary qualification programme and individual support services.   

The prerequisite for your membership is acceptance for doctoral studies by your doctoral institution.