Doctoral Admission

Admission requirements
and registration for the doctorate Dr. rer. pol. (Promotionsvorhaben)

If you are interested in pursuing a doctoral degree at our department, you must:

  1. have found a supervisor (usally a professor at our School)
  2. fulfill the formal requirements specified by the General Doctoral Regulations of the University Erlangen-Nürnberg (RPromO) and the Faculty Doctoral Regulations (FPromO):
  • Master’s degree, state examination, Diplom or Magister at a university or university of applied sciences in an economics and social science programme
  • Final grade of 2.5 or better
  • At least 50 ECTS credits in economics and social sciences, but up to 20 ECTS credits can be accredited from other disciplines of relevance for the topic of the doctoral degree. If the candidate does not have the required number of ECTS credits, they may be admitted subject to the condition that they still attain the required ECTS at a later date (FAQs-Admission).
    Important in the case of “Proof of requirements for Admission / Zulassungsauflagen”: Please also remember to submit the form “Proof of requirements for Admission / Zulassungsauflagen (in German)” to the Doctoral Office, signed by your supervisior, at the latest when submitting/opening of the doctoral procedere .

Supervisor selection

We are sorry, but we cannot help you in the search for a supervisor. To find a suitable chair for your research specialisation, you can use the chairs of the institutes as a guide.
For the initial discussion with your first supervisor, we recommend that you familiarise yourself with the checklist for good practice and the Supervision agreement.

You may also find current vacancies, including the possibility of a doctoral degree (Dr. rer. pol.) at the Department of Business, Economics and Social Sciences on the FAU job portal.

Registration of the doctoral degree / Admission (Zulassung)

As soon as you have found a supervisor, please register in docDaten.
At the end of the online registration process, you will receive the “Application for admission to doctoral studies – Dr. rer. pol.”, which you and your first supervisor should sign and submit to the Doctoral Office together with the following documents (each as a PDF).

1. Curriculum vitae;
2. Copy of a valid identity document;
3. Proof of university entrance qualification (e.g. Abitur);
4. Proof and certificates of your university degrees (Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees);
5. Proof of a duly completed degree programme (e.g. transcript of records).

After positive examination and processing, you will receive a letter of admission from us with a copy to your supervisor.
We will contact you if we have any queries or if we need additional documents from you.

The title of the thesis will remain a working title until submission and will only be finally entered in DocDaten by the doctoral office when you submit your thesis (opening of the doctoral procedure).
When registering in docDaten, please be sure to enter your email address (private and business) and a mobile phone number so that we can contact you if necessary.
Please contact the doctoral office again – after consultation with the supervisor/reviewer – at the latest to arrange an appointment for the submission (upload) of your dissertation / opening of the doctoral procedure.

 

You can voluntarily enrol at the university during your doctoral degree
After admission to doctoral studies, doctoral candidates enrol at FAU as doctoral students. Please note the requirements and information provided by the Student Records Office for subjects not requiring admission. To enrol, you will need the confirmation of doctoral studies at FAU, which you can find in docDaten.
Here at Early Career Support or at Student Advice Center you will find the advantages, informations of enrolment and the contact persons.

 

Premature termination of your doctoral project
If your doctoral project is terminated prematurely, please also remember to inform all those involved in the specific doctoral project of this in accordance with the RPromO and to submit your confirmation to the doctoral office using the appropriate form “Notification of Premature Termination of a doctoral degree”, which you can find on our website under “Documents and Service-Supervision”.

If you have any further questions, please refer to our FAQs or contact the team at the doctoral office.