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Registration of doctoral candidates
According to the State Higher Education Act, registration must be done at the beginning of the doctoral procedure. Timely registration is important, as there must be at least a three-year gap between the registration for the doctoral procedure and the submission of the dissertation (Doctoral degree regulations Dr. sc. hum. § 8 (1)).
A familial or partnership relationship precludes supervision.
In addition to the documents the applicant has to submit, a doctoral agreement signed by the doctoral supervisor and the applicant (= future doctoral candidate) must also be submitted (Doctoral degree regulations § 6 (3)). Please fill in the form together with the applicant; fields marked as optional may be left blank. The agreement may also be amended later by mutual consent. The doctoral agreement does not give rise to any enforceable legal rights.
By submitting the registration forms, both parties confirm that they are familiar with the ‘Principles of Heidelberg University for Ensuring Good Scientific Practice’ (Doctoral Regulations, Appendix 1) and that they will comply with them. At the same time, you should check whether an application to the Ethics Committee is required and whether animal experiments are planned which require prior approval. The application for an ethics vote is submitted to the Ethics Committee by the doctoral supervisor.
The forms must be submitted to the Doctoral Office, this is usually done by the applicant. The Doctoral Office will inform the applicant by post whether his or her application has been accepted.
Recommendations for assessment
In addition to the recommendations for assessing dissertations, the Doctoral Committee recommends that the following points be taken into account when drafting a Votum informativum or expert opinion:
- What is the scientific background of the topic or research question?
- What is the research question or objective?
- What methods were used?
- What statistical methods were used?
- What results were obtained? (Please include a brief summary of the results in the votum or expert opinion.)
- What conclusions can be drawn from this?
- What further questions may arise from the submitted work?
The doctoral candidate's ability to conduct scientific work and to think critically must be assessed. This also includes the ability to independently develop solutions to the specified problems based on knowledge gained from studying the literature and methodological principles taught by the doctoral supervisor, personal commitment and the timely completion of the work/thesis.
The assessment must be clearly comprehensible to the members of the doctoral committee. It is essential that the doctoral candidate's own work is highlighted and clearly distinguished from contributions and preliminary work by third parties within their own working group.
Oral examination
Once the doctoral committee has made a grade recommendation based on the reports, the oral examination must generally be taken within six months of the dissertation being accepted. The oral examination is open to members of the university and should last approximately one hour.
