As soon as your doctoral performance has been evaluated, the doctoral documents are complete and the publication obligation has been fulfilled, your doctoral certificate will be put into print (unless you have not yet completed your studies).

You will receive a sealed certificate with the original signature of the Dean. The printing of the certificate and obtaining the dean's signature will be done within 2-3 weeks.

The cardboard certificates are awarded once a year during a ceremony (see graduation ceremony), for which you will receive a separate invitation approximately 4 weeks in advance. Therefore, please remember to inform the office of the doctoral affairs of any address changes! If you do not attend the graduation ceremony, the cardboard certificate will be handed out / sent to you.

Please note

The doctoral degree is obtained by completing a doctoral procedure and you are only entitled to use the doctoral title after receiving the doctoral certificate!

Thereby, the doctoral degree is not a title, but an academic degree - the highest in Germany.

Furthermore, the doctoral degree is not a part of the name, even if it can be entered in the passport or identity card with the abbreviation Dr.. Thus, there is no right of address using the doctoral degree.

Please note that doctoral degrees may only be used abroad in the form in which they were awarded and which can be verified by a certificate; there are no "translations" here. Unauthorized use of academic degrees is punishable by up to one year imprisonment or a fine according to § 132a StGB. Thus, for example, the PhD is a title that must be explicitly awarded to you, just like the doctoral degree. It may only be used when the university abroad officially awards the doctoral degree or allows you to use it. It is at the discretion of the university to classify the doctoral degree earned here as equivalent to the PhD.

If you need a confirmation of your doctorate at the Heidelberg Medical Faculty in addition to the doctoral certificate, please contact the office for doctoral affairs directly at med.promotion@med.uni-heidelberg.de. Requests from private companies for doctorate confirmation will not be processed.