There are two ways of gaining a doctorate at the Technical University of Darmstadt:
- Traditional – doctoral candidates carry out research individually under the supervision of the supervisor and are not bound to a mandatory programme of studies.
- Structured – doctoral candidates conduct their studies within the context of a structured doctoral programme, mostly in a group with other early career researchers.
All Information concerning doing a doctorate at the Technical University of Darmstadt can be found at the web page for Early Career Researchers.
Degrees are granted by the departments at the Technical University of Darmstadt. This means you need to be accepted as a doctoral candidate by a department. To apply for acceptance as a doctoral candidate, a formal application is made to the department’s doctoral board.
9th Amendment to the Doctoral Regulations (opens in new tab)
(The English translation is for information purposes only. The legally binding document is the German version).
Part of the procedure for the admission of a doctoral candidate includes establishing whether the person has the necessary qualifications to do a doctorate or whether proof of any further examinations needs to be provided.
General information about the doctoral studies at TU Darmstadt
Special Additional Regulations of the Department 2 (opens in new tab)
The doctoral board usually meets at the beginning and at the end of a semester to decide on received applications. All applications to be processed must be submitted to the departmental office at least 21 days before the doctoral board meeting.
1. Supervision during the doctorate
A doctoral project should be accompanied by a supervisor. As a rule, this supervisor is a member of the professorship of the Department of History and Social Sciences. Please get in contact with them.
2. Admission to the doctorate
The doctoral relationship begins with the acceptance of the student as a doctoral candidate. You submit an application for acceptance as doctoral student at the Department of History and Social Sciences. The doctoral board is responsible for deciding on whether to accept a doctoral candidate.
3. Doctorate
You work on your doctoral project and write a dissertation.
4. Initiation the doctoral examination procedure
The doctoral examination procedure is initiated by a written application submitted by the doctoral candidate to the dean of the responsible department, once your dissertation is completed. The doctoral board decides on whether to approve the initiation of the doctoral examination procedure.
5. Publication of the dissertation
After passing the examination, the doctoral candidate must publish the dissertation within a period of one year, taking into account any conditions stipulated by the examination committee.
Detailed process descriptions, forms and documents can be found in the following sections. If you have any questions, please contact the Departmental Office.
1. Obtain supervision commitment
At first, you need a written confirmation of supervision from your PhD supervisor for your planned doctorate (cf. doctoral regulations § 7 (1)).
2. Registration / enrollment online
Valid for national and international future doctoral students
For starting a PhD at the TU Darmstadt, an online registration is obligatory; the enrollment as student is optional. Both options are available all year round without deadlines.
To register/enroll, please follow the process below.
Make your registration / enrollment via the web portal TUCaN (go to the).
If you have already studied at TU Darmstadt, please use your TU-ID for login. Otherwise, please create a new account. After having completed the online process, an application for registration / enrollment (for national doctoral candidates) or a cover sheet (for international doctoral candidates) will be generated in the portal.
At the end of the process, please print out the application for enrollment/registration (or the cover sheet (for international doctoral candidates)), sign it and hand it in at the departmental office of the Department 02. There we will fill in the section “internal processing note/interner Verarbeitungsvermerk” for you with the data concerning your acceptance as a doctoral student, stamp and sign it. Then we will forward your application by internal mail to the Directorate IIB Application and Admission. In Directorate IIB, your enrollment or registration will be carried out for you, if necessary, after you have submitted further required documents and paid the semester fee. You can find out whether you need to submit any further documents in your online application account (TUCaN) in the section “My documents” .
Do not be confused by the terms “application / online application” in TUCaN; for technical reasons, these are used for both registration and enrollment.
The next step only applies to international doctoral candidates. “International doctoral candidates” are persons who have acquired their HZB (university entrance qualification) or master's degree abroad. Persons with foreign HZB and Master's degree at TU Darmstadt count like national doctoral candidates.
Only international doctoral candidates. Submission of documents to “International Admission (Referat VIIIA)”.
- The “cover sheet” generated in TUCaN
- Certificates entitling to a doctorate:
- Bachelor's/Master's certificates with overview of subjects and grades, each in officially certified copies and translations
- Copy of your passport
- CV (Curriculum vitae)
- Note: Language certificates are not required.
Once your documents have been received completely, you will be issued a “'letter of conditional admission to doctoral studies”. This admission is not an acceptance as a doctoral candidate! Exclusively the doctoral committee makes the decision about the acceptance.
Additionally, you will receive your “Antrag Einschreibung/Registrierung (international)” (Application for enrollment/registration). Both documents are available in the TUCaN portal under “My documents”. You will be informed about the provision of the documents by e-mail.
3. After registration in the online portal
After completing the online application, an application for registration / enrollment is generated in the portal. Please submit this to the departmental office of the Department of History and Social Sciences together with the documents for the application for acceptance as a doctoral candidate.
Please submit the following documents to your department (international doctoral candidates please only after having received feedback from Ref. VIII A).
Please submit the required documents to your department (international doctoral candidates please only after having received feedback from Ref. VIIIA, see above).
Further Information
General information on doctoral studies
(cf. § 7 of the doctoral regulations)
In order to apply for acceptance as a doctoral candidate at Department 2, please send the following documents to the departmental office of Department 2:
- Application form for admission as a doctoral candidate at Department (opens in new tab)
- Written confirmation from your PhD supervisor confirming the supervision. A recommendation for the supervisor in accordance with § 10 (1); if a supervisor is recommended in accordance with § 11 (2) b), an additional positive vote by a member of the group of professors in the department must be presented;
- “Antrag Einschreibung/Registrierung (international)” (Application for enrollment/registration) generated in TUCaN with your signature
- Certificates entitling to a doctorate, i.e. a proof of a university degree that entitles the student to complete their doctorate according to the doctoral regulations;
- A curriculum vitae (CV)
The doctoral board is responsible for deciding on whether to accept a doctoral candidate. As soon as the doctoral board has dealt with your application, you will be informed of the decision by mail.
(cf. § 8 of the doctoral regulations).
The doctoral examination procedure is initiated by a written application submitted by the doctoral candidate (opens in new tab) to the dean of the department. The following must be enclosed with the application to initiate the doctoral examination procedure:
- A CV and overview of the student's education.
- One to six printed copies of the dissertation according to the guidelines in the specific regulations (opens in new tab) (one copy for each member of the examination committee and one copy for the department) and an identical electronic copy for the completion of the doctoral examination procedure (see requirements for the title page of a dissertation).
- Declarations: The submission of both declarations (1) and (2) is mandatory!
- Regarding (1): The “Declaration concerning the initiation of the doctoral examination procedure” has to be submitted in the original and signed by hand when you first submit your dissertation to your Departmental Office for the initiation of the doctoral procedure (cf. §§ 8 para. 1 and 9 para. 1 PO/AT): The declaration can be found under Declaration on the initiation of the doctoral procedure (opens in new tab).
- Regarding (2): The “Declaration on the transfer of rights to the dissertation” has to be signed and submitted to the University and State Library (ULB) (cf. § 19 para. 1 and 2 PO/AT) in your Departmental Office and to the ULB after the successful disputation when submitting an electronic version, which is mandatory for all doctoral candidates. This does not only apply to electronic publication via the ULB. An identical electronic version has also to be submitted to the ULB in the case of an intended print or electronic publication (exception according to § 19 para. 5 and 6 PO/AT) or in the case of a requested and approved extension of the submission deadline (exceptions according to § 20 para. 2 and 3 PO/AT) (§ 19 para. 1 PO/AT), which must be accompanied by the “Declaration on the transfer of rights to the dissertation”. In these cases, the upload is made to a ULB server that is not accessible to third parties.
- The declaration can be found under Declaration on the transfer of rights to the dissertation (opens in new tab).
- Further information on “Declarations”
- Proof of payment of the doctoral fee of 100 EUR must be provided in the form of the corresponding receipt.
The fee in the amount of 100 EUR is to be transferred to the following account:
(bank details of the Technical University of Darmstadt):
Stadt- und Kreissparkasse Darmstadt
Account no. 704 300 (sort code 508 501 50)
IBAN: DE36 5085 0150 0000 7043 00
BIC / SWIFT-Code: HELADEF1DAS
Intended purpose: Doctoral fees FB 2
For registered doctoral students, the registration number is also required.
(cf. §§ 14, 15, 16 of the doctoral regulations).
An oral examination is held by the examination committee for every doctoral candidate individually in the form of a dissertation defence. All referees produce a reasoned evaluation of the dissertation that is submitted to the departmental office. The departmental office forwards the referee evaluations to the members of the doctoral board and the examination committee and makes the dissertation and the evaluations available for viewing.
As soon as all evaluations have been received by the departmental office of Department 2, the appointed examination committee and the candidate will be informed. The scheduling of the date for the oral examination will then be organized by the members of the examination board. The departmental office of Department 2 only invites to the dissertation defence on the scheduled date and provides a room for the oral examination.
(cf. §§ 19, 20 of the doctoral regulations).
After passing the examination, the doctoral candidate must upload the dissertation to the university publication server of the ULB, taking into account any conditions stipulated by the examination board (Section 17(3)). If the doctoral candidate does not refer to using a publishing house in accordance with Paragraph 5 or 6, or to applying for an extension of the deposit deadline or for an embargo (blocking period) in accordance with Section 20(2) or (3), the dissertation is published immediately when uploading it to the university publication server of the University and State Library Darmstadt (ULB). The dissertation must be published within one year after passing the examination. Conditions stipulated by the examination board (Section 17(3) must be taken into account. The dissertation must be published in full.
A timely publication on the university publication server fulfils the doctoral candidate's obligation to publish. The deadline for delivering obligatory copies (including legal deposits) is one year after the oral examination. The deposit deadline can be extended in justified cases by one year upon timely application to the doctoral board. The application must be submitted within the original deposit deadline. The deposit deadline can be extended by the doctoral board for up to five years, thus, exceeding the deadline stated in Paragraph 2. However, this requires proof that a publishing agreement exists, the dissertation has been accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, or that an embargo is required to obtain intellectual, industrial or other property rights. If the application is approved, the dissertation will be uploaded by the doctoral candidate to a server of the University and State Library Darmstadt (ULB) that is not accessible to third parties. It will not be published.
Documents for the publication of the dissertation
If the doctoral candidate fails to deliver the obligatory copies (including legal deposits) in accordance with the above provisions, or fails to do so within the given deadline, the doctoral examination will be deemed failed. The same applies if the doctoral candidate does not comply with the conditions according to Section 17(3) or cannot provide proof of publication or provide this proof within the given deadline.
(cf. §§ 20, 21, 22 of the doctoral regulations).
The respective number of obligatory copies can be found in §20 of the doctoral regulations. As soon as proof of publication has been provided, the University and State Library Darmstadt will inform the responsible department about the delivery. The doctorate will then be awarded by issuing the doctoral certificate to the doctoral candidate. From this point in time, the student awarded the doctorate has the right to carry the doctoral title.
If a certificate of the successful dissertation defence is required between the successful dissertation defence and the issuing of the doctoral certificate, the departmental office will provide a respective document upon informal request.
(cf. § 21 of the doctoral regulations).
Once the dissertation has been published on the university publication server in accordance with Section 19(1) or Section 19(4) to (6), the University and State Library Darmstadt (ULB) informs the department concerned to that effect. The doctorate will then be awarded by issuing the doctoral certificate to the doctoral candidate. From this point in time, the doctoral graduate has the right to hold the respective doctoral title.