Frequently Asked Questions about your Doctoral Degree at the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences

The prerequisite is, on the one hand, an academic degree according to § 3 of the doctoral regulations in the doctoral subject. If you do not have a degree in the doctoral subject, but in a related subject, it will be checked whether you can be accepted and if so, which conditions still have to be fulfilled. On the other hand, you need the supervisory approval of at least one active professor in the doctoral subject at the WiSo faculty. You will find the professors and their research areas here.

No. Only when you are accepted as a doctoral student at the faculty, you have the confirmation that you meet the requirements to do a doctorate here. Applying for admission as a doctoral student is the first step in being hired as a research assistant through budgetary funds. Admission as a doctoral student is also a prerequisite for enrollment as a doctoral student. Information and forms for acceptance can be found on this homepage under "1. Admission as doctoral student". Please submit all documents to the doctoral office of the faculty in the dean's office, address can be found on the homepage. Here it will be checked, among other things, whether the requirements for a doctorate in the doctoral subject of your choice are met and whether supervision by at least one professor of the faculty is guaranteed. If this is the case, a certificate of acceptance will be issued.

However, accepted doctoral candidates do not necessarily have to be employed at the university. External doctorates are also possible. Employment as a research assistant via budgetary funds should only be made once you have been accepted as a doctoral student. It is handled by the personnel office of the institute or department and goes from there to the personnel department of the central administration. An important document is the doctoral agreement (the form for this can also be found under "1. Admission as a doctoral candidate"), since the time limit of the position is usually based on the start and end of the doctorate as stated in the doctoral agreement.

An exception to this rule is the hiring for externally funded projects, where a decision on a doctorate may only be made at a later point in time. In this case, of course, acceptance as a doctoral candidate can only be applied for once this has been clarified.

Enrollment as a doctoral student takes place via the Student Secretariat and can also take place at any time during the semester. The prerequisite for this is that you have been accepted as a doctoral student at the faculty and can present the acceptance certificate at the time of enrollment. All information about enrollment is available here:https://uni-tuebingen.de/de/920

Foreign degrees are examined if you apply to be accepted as a doctoral student. You can also ask the International Affairs Department in advance whether your degree is recognised in Germany.

The doctoral agreement is made between the doctoral student and his or her supervisors at the beginning of the doctorate. Regular supervision interviews are documented in the "Interview Guide for Doctoral Students". Good and regular supervision is of great importance for the success of the doctorate. If you are hired as a research assistant, the start and end dates of the doctorate specified in the doctoral agreement will be used to limit the duration of the employment contract.

No, the application for admission as a doctoral candidate or admission to the doctoral qualification process can be made at any time (although holidays and staff schedules may result in a processing delay).

Unfortunately, there is no help from the doctoral institution here.  Each doctoral student is responsible for finding a suitable supervisor. An already prepared exposé can be helpful.

At least one of the supervisors or reviewers must be an active professor of the faculty in the doctoral subject, and two of the three examiners in the defense must meet these criteria. Two supervisors from our faculty are the rule. External second supervisors and reviewers should only be applied for if no second supervisor suitable for the doctoral topic can be found at the faculty.  External supervisors and reviewers are applied for in writing to the doctoral committee (for address see Dean's Office) with a plausible justification and the contact details of the desired supervisor/reviewer.

Supervisors and reviewers can only be persons with habilitation or habilitation equivalence. The desired supervisor must have the right to supervise a doctorate at his/her university. Documents to prove the qualification, in particular the doctorate supervision authorization, must be enclosed. The first supervisor's consent must be enclosed, too. In case of doubt, the doctoral committee will decide.

Publication-based dissertations are carried out in close contact with the supervisors. General guidelines are laid down in the doctoral regulations § 6. Further general and specific criteria for the individual doctoral subjects are laid down in the Guide to Doctoral Degrees. It makes sense to pay attention to the design of publication contracts with journals right from the start, since the doctoral procedure only ends with the publication of the dissertation and journal contracts often contain clauses that make publication of the dissertation more difficult or delayed.

The dissertation can be written in English or German. For either language the language level C1 is required. A certificate of the language level of the dissertation language of non-German doctoral candidates must be submitted to the doctoral office in the Dean's Office at the latest by the end of the first doctoral year.

As of March 30, 2018, doctoral candidates must enroll in accordance with Section 38 (5) of the State University Act (LHG) after they have been accepted as a doctoral candidate at the faculty. Matriculation is compulsory until the date of the passed oral examination. Doctoral students who have already been accepted as a doctoral candidate at their faculty prior to March 30, 2018, may matriculate, but are not required to do so. Doctoral students who work full-time at the University of Tübingen (employment contract with a scope of at least half of the regular working hours of a full-time employee) can be exempted from the obligation to enroll. In any case, however, you must register with the Student Administration Office. It helps to have a copy of the inlay sheet ready, as this information will be needed again at the Student Administration Office. Enrollment comes with student benefits and allows you to use university facilities. For more information on enrollment, please consult the Student Administration Office.

The doctoral regulations stipulate in § 4 (8) that the dissertation will be submitted within five years of the application for admission to doctoral studies. It is possible to apply for an extension of the doctoral period. This may be necessary, for example, if you are gainfully employed or start a family.

In the download area you can download a form to apply for an extension of the doctoral period. This should contain a plausible reason for the extension. The student should have had a discussion with the supervisor beforehand, and by signing the application the supervisor confirms his or her agreement to the extension and his or her willingness to provide further supervision.

Please contact the doctoral office, preferably with a simple e-mail, stating that you do not wish to continue with your doctoral project or, if applicable, stating that you intend to continue it at another university. You can then receive a confirmation letter from the doctoral office about the deregistration of your doctoral project, if you wish.

There are no concrete guidelines. We recommend a DinA4 soft weave with a font that is easy to read for the experts. For the title page, the first page of the title page, which is required for the publication of the dissertation, can be used as a template. The template for the title page can be found on the homepage (Point 4: Publishing of the dissertation).

In principle, the date of the defense should only be set after the expert opinions have been received. Planned defense dates should be communicated to the dean's office as soon as possible so that the meeting of the deadlines can be supervised. The display period after receipt of the reports is 14 days (Doctoral degree regulations § 11 (2) ²⁾). The doctoral degree committee has stated more precisely a period of at least ten working days, i.e. generally two weeks, with public holidays extending the period. This period cannot be shortened.

The period between the end of the display and the defense provided for by the doctoral regulations is at least two weeks.

A shortening of this period, between the end of the display and the defense, can be requested with the appropriate downloaded form in the dean's office. However, a shortening of the display period is not possible.

Recommended format is DinA5 with printing on both sides. Spiral binding is not allowed, it must be a durable adhesive binding. In the case of electronic publications, three copies must be submitted; in the case of publishing house publications, four copies must be submitted.  They must contain the double-page title page confirmed by the printing permit.

One prerequisite is the successful defense. Another is the permission to print, which is applied for in the Dean's office with the form  Declaration concerning Differences to the Submitted Dissertation and other documents.

The Office of University Publications / Dissertations in the University Library does not have fixed opening hours. You can drop off your dissertation and related documents at the info desk in the Ammerbau during service hours, currently Monday through Friday, between 8:00 a.m. and 6:30 p.m., the current opening hours are always linked here: https://uni-tuebingen.de/de/72175

or send them by mail to the following address:
Tübingen University Library
University publications/dissertations
Wilhelmstr. 32
72074 Tübingen
 
We are always available by e-mail to answer your questions and will be happy to arrange a consultation appointment with you if necessary.  E-mail: edl-publspam prevention@ub.uni-tuebingen.de.

For further information on printed or electronic publication, please click here: https://uni-tuebingen.de/de/216637

If it is foreseeable that the dissertation will not be published two years after the defense, an informal extension of the publication deadline can be applied for. This application should be exceptional and well-founded.

The doctoral certificate is written in German according to § 19 of the doctoral regulations. An English translation can be provided upon request.

In principle, this possibility exists. However, it is not recommended for the following reasons: A cotutelle contract must be negotiated with each partner university together with the legal department. This is a very laborious and time-consuming procedure because foreign universities in particular often have quite different doctoral procedures for which a rapprochement must be found. Once the contract has been signed by the Dean, the supervisor and, if necessary, other persons from both universities, as well as the doctoral supervisor and the doctoral student, all steps in the doctoral procedure must be repeatedly coordinated with the partner university. Experience with the few cotutelle cases carried out to date has shown that the benefit of being able to use the title of both universities after completion of the procedure is out of all proportion to the expenditure - both for the doctoral student and the administration.

A much simpler solution is recommended here: at our faculty, in addition to the supervision by a professor of the faculty, it is possible to apply to the doctoral committee for supervision and assessment by an external professor - also of a foreign university. Then the international character is ensured without having to painstakingly coordinate different procedures.