Enrolment
At a Glance
- Admission to a Ph.D. Programme
- Applying for a Ph.D. Programme
- Academic Supervisors for Doctoral Programmes
- Doctoral Requirements
- Financing
Admission to a Ph.D. Programme
In order to be admitted to a Ph.D. programme, you are required to provide evidence of having graduated from a German university or completing an equivalent education at a recognised foreign university. Further requirements are covered by the Ph.D. programme regulations of the individual faculties. More (German only 
)
Applying for a Ph.D. Programme
To apply for a doctoral programme, the following is usually required:
- Application for admission as a Ph.D. student (only required from applicants with a foreign university degree or foreign citizenship);
- Application for admission, with note if enrolment is not desired;
- Registration as a doctoral student in accordance with the Higher Education Statistics Act (Hochschulstatistikgesetz, HSatG)
- Proof of successful university graduation in the form of officially certified copies of the grade report and graduation diploma as well as their certified translations, in case the documents are not submitted in German or English;
- Curriculum vitae in tabular form;
- Summary of previous academic achievements and explanations of the preparatory work for the scientific project;
- Supervisory statement of a professor of Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg for the scientific project;
- In case of applicants from India, China or Vietnam an additional check, of the certificates of academic achievement needs to be asked for from the Academic Offices (Akademische Prüfstelle/APS) of the German Embassies in Peking or Hanoi. Information can be found on the following web pages:
Academic Supervisors for Ph.D. Programmes
Candidates should know in which field of study they wish to produce their dissertation. This will mainly depend on the areas of emphasis in their previous studies. Next, they should attempt to make contact with an academic supervisor for their dissertation.
The applicant contacts a university lecturer in the preferred field of study. The candidate clarifies whether the lecturer is willing to take on the supervision of the dissertation. University lecturers are not obliged to admit an applicant, even if the candidate meets the necessary requirements. The assistants to the dean of each faculty are available to help contact the relevant lecturer or answer general questions.
Decisions on the admission of Ph.D. students are made by the council of the relevant faculty once the equivalence of the candidate's university degree has been checked. The equivalence check is carried out by the department of academic affairs.
Doctoral Requirements
The time needed for completion of a Ph.D. ranges - depending on the field of study and topic of the dissertation - from two to six years. The requirements for the awarding of a Ph.D. are as follows:
- A doctoral thesis (dissertation);
- the public defence of the dissertation (disputation);
- the publication of the dissertation.
Financing
ERASMUS Third Cycle
The ERASMUS-Programme of the European Comission offers Ph.D. students a scholarship over one or two semesters staying at a university in a European foreign country. If there is a cooperation (see exchange data base) you can apply at your home university. For further information on studying at OVGU as an Erasmus+ participant, please check here.
National and International Subsidies
We recommend following different scholarship data bases for further subsidies for your international research and exchange:
e-fellows
DAAD
EURAXESS Deutschland
Die ZEIT
(only required from
applicants with a foreign university degree or foreign citizenship)
