Acceptance as a doctoral candidate must be applied at the responsible doctoral committee before starting a doctoral project.

According to § 5 PromO, dissertations must be registered when a topic is assigned. Usually, 3 years must pass between acceptance as a doctoral student and submission of the dissertation.

Please note that a subject-related degree (topically relevant to the proposed doctoral project) is required for admission.

In the case of diploma programs at a university of applied sciences or university of cooperative education, the registration is preceded by the aptitude testing procedure (§ 4 para. 5 PromO).

Suitability assessment procedure for diploma programs (subject catalog)

Please note that access to patient data / ISH-med of the University Hospital is to be applied for via Doctoral Agreement (s. below) and will only be granted upon your acceptance as a doctoral student.

REGISTRATION WITH HEIDOCS

The creation of an electronic doctoral file by registration in the central online portal heiDOCS is required for registration according to §5 para. 3 PromO. The data must be kept up to date by the doctoral candidate during the entire duration of the doctorate.

Online registration: heiDOCS - Create user account for the online doctoral file (please do not register if you have already registered!)

All questions regarding the online doctoral file can be answered by the central doctoral office on the pages of Heidelberg University.

• Login heiDOCS (Online Registration)

Submission of the application documents

Please submit only complete documents and be sure to register beforehand at heiDOCS.

Please note that only complete documents with original signatures (electronic signatures are accepted for TAC members) received in the Office for Doctoral Affairs at least 3 weeks before the meeting will be forwarded to the Doctoral Committee.

Please submit the documents unstapled (exception: officially certified copies), not clamped and without individual slides.

Required documents (to be submitted together with the checklist):

1. Application for acceptance as a doctoral candidate (form)
2. Doctoral Agreement Template according to § 5 para. 1 PromO (pre-printed form), incl. composition of the TAC with (electr.) signatures of all members. Please fill out the project milestones in approx. 6 monthly steps, note the guidelines of Export Control - Heidelberg University (uni-heidelberg.de) and respect relevant legislation when filling out the privacy statement! Please make a copy of the doctoral agreement for your records
3. Short concept of the planned dissertation (pre-printed form)
4. If applicable, copies of the ethics votes(§ 15 of the professional code of conduct) and/or animal experimentation permits(§ 8 of the Animal Protection Act)
5. Proof of completed university studies in officially certified copy (no recycled paper!): Diploma + examination certificate or Bachelor's and Master's degree (certificate and diploma in each case)
6. Copy of identity card/passport
7. Proof of language skills, if applicable

Required for foreign degrees:

Officially certified copy of Bachelor's and Master's degrees, each certificate and transcript (in original language and, if applicable, English or German translation) AND:

• in the case of degrees from outside the EU with an original evaluation from the Central Office for Foreign Education (ZAB), in the case of degrees from China, Vietnam and India additionally with APS;
• for degrees from the EU with a printout from the anabin database of the ZAB.

Required for dissertations at external institutions:

• Consent form by dissertation at external institutions (form)

COMPULSORY MATRICULATION

Since 30.03.2018, enrolment at the university has been compulsory in accordance with the State Higher Education Low (LGH). According to the current version of the LHG (valid from 23.11.2024), § 38 (5): Persons who have been accepted as doctoral candidates are enrolled in accordance with Section 60 (1) sentence 1 letter b; this does not apply to accepted doctoral candidates who are working full-time at the university if they have declared in writing or electronically to the Rectorate that they do not wish to be enrolled. Persons who take up full-time employment at the university after acceptance can be exmatriculated upon request when they begin their employment. Exmatriculation before the date of the oral examination interrupts the doctoral procedure, provided that no exemption pursuant to sentence 1 exists at the time of exmatriculation. The interruption of the doctoral procedure ends with the re-enrolment on the basis of the previous acceptance as a doctoral candidate or through an exemption in accordance with sentence 1 or through the final discontinuation of the doctorate. The duration of the interruption is counted towards the maximum period of validity of admission to the doctorate as regulated by the university. (This is a translation of the original German document and for convenience purposes only).

In this context, we refer you to the matriculation obligation. Please find further information for the legal requirements and documents for the enrolment at the University of Heidelberg here. For more information s. also Formal steps for beginning your doctorate - University of Heidelberg (uni-heidelberg.de).

Please note

The documents to be submitted are examination documents and must be archivable. Therefore, do not make the copies on recycled paper!

All original documents to be submitted for the doctoral procedure remain with us, so please make copies for personal use, if necessary. The office of doctoral affairs will not make copies for you!