In the humanities and social sciences in Germany, the individual doctorate is still the predominant form. This means that you must individually contact a person authorized to supervise and ask whether they are willing to supervise your doctoral project.

Characteristics of the individual doctorate:

• The application for acceptance as a doctoral candidate can be submitted at any time. There are no special application deadlines.
• As a rule, there are no formal selection procedures. The faculty or rectorate merely checks whether the general formal requirements for acceptance as a doctoral candidate have been met (cf. the relevant doctoral degree regulations (in German)).
• You must find a suitable supervisor and bring your own ideas for a possible doctoral topic. You will then determine the topic of your doctorate with the supervisor.
• Acceptance as a doctoral candidate is not linked to funding. You and your supervisor must decide for yourself which funding is suitable for you. Obtaining doctoral funding may take a long time.
• The doctorate can also be done on a part-time basis.
• The doctoral thesis usually consists of the thesis (monographic or cumulative) and an oral examination. Additional workshops, courses etc. are usually voluntary.
• The general conditions for supervision are determined individually.

The structured doctorate is also becoming increasingly important in the humanities and social sciences. A “structured doctorate” is a doctoral programme with significantly more requirements, more additional options and often more intensive supervision. There are different forms of structured doctorates, but they often have the following characteristics :

• Application is required at fixed times (e.g. once a semester, once a year or, in the case of time-limited programmes such as the Research Training Groups, only once for the programme in question, or once per funding period, e.g. every three or four years)
• Limited number of members, often highly competitive selection procedures (application documents, interviews, etc.). Successful completion of a structured doctoral programme can therefore also be seen as a distinction and have a positive effect on further career opportunities
• The doctoral candidates admitted at the same time learn and work in a cohort. In this respect, there is more intensive support and integration into university life as well as better networking – the risk of isolation is lower
• Special workshops and events for participants, often compulsory. This promotes very good methodological training and the acquisition of additional skills (including those relevant to the further career). However, this is associated with an increased time commitment. Sometimes there are even separate doctoral regulations for the programme
• Intensive supervision, e.g. separate supervision agreements, team supervision, additional support from postdocs or regular reporting obligations
• Limited duration of the doctorate (varies depending on the type of funding). This means greater time pressure for the doctoral candidates (and their supervisors). In addition, often only those doctoral candidates are accepted into the programme whose doctoral project is already sufficiently advanced to be completed within the allotted time
• The doctorate is often financed by a doctoral position or a doctoral scholarship. In many cases, “associate membership” is possible for people who are funded by other sources, possibly even doing their doctorate at another university
• More or less narrow thematic focus
• Frequent cooperation between different universities/colleges/non-university research institutions

Structured doctoral programmes at JGU in the humanities and social sciences