FAQ

You can enroll at the university during your doctoral studies. Please note that you can be enrolled for a maximum of 6 semesters during your doctorate. We have listed the benefits of enrollment in this factsheet. Please contact the Graduate Center in Erlangen if you have any questions regarding enrollment.

The admission requirements are clearly regulated by the doctoral regulations. These include, among other things, a corresponding degree in an area of business and social science, with at least 50 ECTS credits in economics and social sciences, but up to 20 ECTS credits can also be accredited from other disciplines of relevance for the topic of the doctoral degree. If you do not fulfill all criteria, your application for admission can still be reviewed by the Office of Doctoral Affairs and admission can be granted under certain conditions.

Yes, the copies are sufficient in most cases. However, it may happen that we need a short personal presentation of the original. In this case we would contact you.

For this we refer to the following link.

With the notice of admission to doctoral studies, the enrollment application, your identity card/passport and proof of the paid semester fee, you can enroll for up to 6 semesters via the student administration in Erlangen. You can find more information and contact persons here.

For this we refer to the following link.

Yes, an external doctorate is possible at the School of Business, Economics and Society, as long as you can find a suitable supervisor and work together on your doctorate. External doctoral students must also complete the doctoral program, which is worth 30 ECTS.

The distinction between cumulative and essay-based dissertations is purely legal. If you submit a dissertation with at least two papers already published, it is legally a cumulative dissertation. Otherwise, it is an essay-based one. Operationally, however, this has no impact, as both types are handled in the same way. It is therefore irrelevant that “cumulative” instead of “essay-based” is stored in DocDaten.

Each year there are three PhD collection dates (PST) at our department. The first is usually at the end of April/beginning of May, the second at the beginning of July and the third at the end of November/beginning of December. The doctoral thesis has to be handed in about two months before the respective PST.

The schedule of the PSTs for 2023 can be seen here.

You will receive the date of your oral examination at least one week before the examination date.

However, we try to announce the dates as soon as possible.

We will send you the two written grades of your reports together with the written invitation to the oral examination.

The third examiner is assigned by the doctoral office and may not belong to the same institute as the first supervisor or second examiner. These three parties agree on a common date for your oral examination and pass it on to the Office of Doctoral Affairs.

The final title of the thesis is entered into the system by the Office of Doctoral Affairs after submission of your thesis. You cannot and do not need to change the working title in docdaten during the doctoral procedure.

Upon request, you will receive an application to open your promotion procedure at the Office of Doctoral Affairs, together with the cover sheet to be used, an information package and the promotion regulations applicable to you.Please note that due to the Corona pandemic, procedural openings are currently handled electronically. 

When submitting your dissertation, you must submit the “Application for Recognition of Achievements within the Doctoral Programme” signed by your supervisor. The programme contains modules totalling 30 ECTS. How exactly you obtain these, whether through seminars, lectures, conferences or similar, is to be agreed with your supervisor.

The doctoral regulations govern the constellation of reviewers. If you have any questions, please consult the doctoral regulations that apply to you. An external second reviewer must be approved by the Doctoral Affairs Committee in good time after your first supervisor has submitted an application for this to the Office of Doctoral Affairs.

If this has been agreed in writing with your supervisor, you can write your thesis in English. Please note that your thesis must nevertheless contain a German title and a German summary.

You will receive the co-authoring documents when you make an appointment, together with the application for the opening of proceedings, or you can download it from our site. These receipts must be signed by all co-authors involved and submitted to the first supervisor for each essay. Submit a copy to the doctoral office by the deadline.

Please contact the legal adviser Mrs. Heermann, Tel.: 09131 85-23920, if you have any legal questions concerning the topic “Copyright”.

At least three essays must be included and at least one of them must be written by the doctorate alone. In addition, at least two of the articles should have the potential to be published in a high-ranking peer-reviewed journal at an international level.

Your grade is made up of two thirds of the average grade of the thesis and one third of the grade of the oral examination. If there is an intermediate grade which is in the middle between two grades (1.5; 2.5, 3.5), the better grade will apply.

If your thesis is accepted, the grades 1.0 – 4.0 with intermediate grades at quarter note intervals (0.25) will apply. The grades 0.75 and 4.25 are excluded. If your thesis is rejected, the grade will be non rite (5.0).

No. Please contact your supervisors (also for inspection of the reports).

You can find all the library guidelines that are important when publishing your dissertation here. 

After the Doctoral Affairs Committee has confirmed your grades and you can present a signed print approval note, you may publish your thesis in various selectable variants. You will find the different options on our homepage and on the application for publication of your deposit copies, which you received before your oral examination.

You will receive the application for your deposit copies by e-mail from the Office of Doctoral Affairs before your oral examination so that you have enough time to obtain the signatures for the printable copy.

The print approval note is the approval of your dissertation for publication, which is signed by your two reviewers. This document can be found with the application documents and must be submitted to the library or, in the case of a publication by a publishing house, to the Office of Doctoral Affairs.

You did it! After you have handed your mandatory copies to the library, your part of the work is done and you can be happy. After the Office of Doctoral Affairs has received the certificate of your submission from the library, the last step is taken: the creation of your certificate! This will be sent to you in German and English by post.

For essay-based dissertations: Please remember to mark your work with an embargo notice in case there are still parts in the review process for essay-based dissertations.You will receive the embargo notice when you upload your work to OPUS. Please send it to the Office of Doctoral Affairs for signature.

Usually it takes two to four weeks until we have the signed certificate in the Office of Doctoral Affairs. Afterwards it will be sent immediately and should arrive at your office two workdays later.