The Individual Doctorate

The individual doctorate is the classic variant of doing one‘s doctorate in Germany. Prospective doctoral candidates must individually find a supervisor with whom they agree on the topic and a time frame for the research and writing phases of their doctorate. In contrast to the structured doctorate, the individual doctorate does not include a mandatory funding and participation in the qualification programme with seminars and workshops accompanying the doctorate. Though a supervision agreement is also necessary in the context of the individual doctorate.

At the beginning of a doctoral project, an application for acceptance as a doctoral candidate must be submitted to the respective faculty or Max-Weber-Kolleg in accordance with their doctorate-degree regulations. At the University of Erfurt, each faculty and the Max-Weber-Kolleg has its own doctorate-degree regulation which, in addition to the admission requirements, also specifies how the doctoral and examination procedure is to be carried out and which doctoral degrees are awarded.  Acceptance takes place centrally via Docata - the web portal for doctoral candidatesat the University of Erfurt.