The admission requirements are described in the doctoral regulations in § 4:

(1) Anyone who, after completing their studies, has successfully passed the medical or dental examination required by the approbation regulations for doctors or examination regulations for dentists and submits the documents specified in § 5 Section 2 may be admitted to the doctoral examination procedure.

Admission shall be refused if:

• a doctoral degree or an equivalent academic degree has already been obtained in Germany or abroad on the basis of the degree submitted,
• more than one unsuccessful doctoral attempt has already been made.

(2) In deviation from Para. 1, an application for provisional admission to doctoral studies may be made after passing the first section of the medical examination in accordance with the ÄAppO or after passing the preliminary dental examination in accordance with the ZÄPrO or an equivalent examination before successfully completing the study of medicine or dentistry. A provisional admission becomes invalid if the medical or dental examination is definitively not passed according to the medical or dental licensing regulations. The passed final examination must be proven within 5 years after admission. Before the expiry of this period, the period in which the passed final examination must be proven can be extended in justified cases upon application. If proof of the passed final examination is not provided within 5 years after admission and if this period is also not extended in accordance with the above regulation, the provisional admission becomes invalid and the University of Heidelberg is under no obligation to continue to keep, evaluate or archive the documents submitted in the admission procedure.

(3) Joint dissertations are not permitted.

(4) If the dissertation project is carried out at an institution that is not assigned to the faculty, the declaration of consent must also be obtained from the person responsible in each case (usually the head of department of this institution). This does not apply if it is the supervisor's department.

(5) Applicants who have completed their examinations abroad may be admitted to the doctoral examination procedure if they have passed a foreign medical or dental examination which is to be regarded as equivalent to the German examination in terms of requirements for previous education and course of study. The dean decides on the recognition of the equivalence of the education or the foreign examinations after hearing the Central Office for Foreign Education of the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs in Bonn or another corresponding examining body, which can determine the equivalence.

(6) The Dean may, on the recommendation of the PhD Committee, impose conditions (e.g. qualifying examinations in certain medical or dental fields) for admission to the PhD procedure if equivalence is lacking and admit the applicant to the PhD procedure after passing the qualifying examination. The qualifying examination can be repeated once.

(7) In justified cases, the Dean may demand a language knowledge test in the language of the dissertation.