FAQs - Before Admission
Frequently Asked Auestions (FAQs) - Before the Admission
Yes, this is basically no problem; in terms of enrolment, it would only be a change of your degree programme. However, we recommend that you at least bear the following in mind: If you start your doctorate in a faculty and enrol there as a doctoral student, these doctoral semesters already count as doctoral study time. If you later transfer to the GSH, you will formally enrol there in the 1st semester of your doctoral studies in our "Humanities " Doctoral Study Programme, but in total you will be registered as according to the number of your previous doctoral semesters.
Yes, it is no problem at all to apply "from outside". The most important thing is that you find or put together your Doctoral Supervision Committee. Among our members you will look for your first supervisor and co-supervisors who will form your supervisory team of three. The primary supervisor should be a member of GSH; in total, two members of your supervisory team should be members of our Graduaate School, one person can be external, i.e. work at the University of Würzburg without being a member of GSH, or work at another university.
Nota bene: Your supervisory team is the most important criterion in your application for admission.
Question: What scope is expected when answering the sub-item "Justification of the meaningful internal context..."? Is a supplementary sheet required, or are a few cogent sentences sufficient?
We recommend formulating a good and robust justification here, which will make it much easier to decide in favour of your application. The length should be perhaps a quarter to half a page, similar to a short letter of recommendation for a fellowship application or similar.
No, not mandatorily. However, this is of course generally recommended so that both of your supervisors can provide you with the best possible supervision and examination. The first and second supervisors for your dissertation as part of the Doctoral Aptitude Test can, or ideally should, also be the examiners for the subsequent oral examination.
It is advisable that you later choose your primary supervisor for the Doctoral Aptitude Test as your primary supervisor for your actual doctorate and the co-upervisor can or should ideally also be one of the two co-supervisors for your subsequent doctorate. Incidentally, there is no "third supervisor", only two co-supervisors of equal rank.
Question: Is it possible to do a doctorate in the Graduate School of Humanities even if the two lecturers I have been considering for my supervision are not members?
At least two of your supervisors should be current members of the Graduate School (GSH), one member can come from outside, i.e.
- from the Humanities, but not (yet) a member of the GSH;
- from a non-Humanities faculty, or
- an external university.
If your two potential supervisors are humanities scholars at the University of Würzburg, but not yet members of the GSH, you would need to discuss with them whether they would like to become members. Membership can be applied for informally and we are happy to advise interested parties at any time.
Academics outside the Humanities can also be members of the GSH, but if they are not or do not wish to be, they can participate in your Supervisory CCommittee as external members.
You can find a list of all our members and the subjects they are involved in here.
Please also note at an early stage when putting together your Doctoral Committee:
Unfortunately, GSH cannot finance travel and hotel costs for external supervisors; i.e. travel for participation in supervisory meetings and the final oral exam must be paid for from another source; we recommend that you contact your primary supervisor for this.
Question: I am currently considering who could become a member of my Doctoral Committee. Who is authorised to award me a doctorate, or who is authorised to take my doctoral examination at the end?
The following are authorised to award doctorates:
- Active and retired professors.
- Privatdozenten and Privatdozentinnen.
- Habilitation candidates (i.e. if you have been accepted as a habilitation candidate and have been assigned independent research and teaching duties.
- Full-time and, in exceptional cases, qualified part-time academic staff, including Akademische Räte. In justified cases acceptance for habilitation may be waived in justified cases for this group.
Further and detailed information.
Sources:
Bayer. Hochschulprüferverordnung - HSchPrüferV, §§ 2 and 4.
Bayer. Hochschulinnovationsgesetz - BayHIG, Art 19.
Your curriculum comprises a total of 16 semester hours over (initially planned) six semesters, i.e. an average of 2-3 semester hours per semester. The form in which you achieve these credits and whether there are traditional "certificates" for them depends on the course in question.
If you attend an advanced seminar, for example, a certificate of achievement is usually a certificate for a presentation, possibly with a term paper, and a grade. If you attend a doctoral colloquium or similar, there is usually no grading. In this case, you would only need to obtain an informal confirmation from the lecturer (or pre-formulate it informally as a precaution), which you can then add to your study documents in order to submit it for admission to the doctoral examination.
Yes, of course. Only some of our doctoral candidates have a fellowship, some have a position as a research assistant. The majority finance their doctorate themselves.
We are happy to support you in your search for a suitable doctoral fellowship:
- in our "Info & Service" page you will find a detailed overview of all doctoral fellowhips for early career researchers in the Humanities;
- each semester we offer a special and detailed information event with tips and tricks for doctoral applications and an overview of the most important scholarship providers ("Der Stipendiengreifer"); we always publicise this event by email and via posters;
- we also support you in particular with the formulation of your application for a fellowship.
No, a doctorate is always a (very) individual matter, there is generally no such thing as a "team" doctorate, but this is not decisive: if you and your academic partner have very related topics, you can work closely together, conduct research, exchange research results and possibly even choose the same supervisors. The class structure of the GSH and the three-person supervisory teams, which can also overlap in terms of composition, offer the best possible conditions for this.
You only have to write the thesis on your own and you have to pass the oral exam on your own, but your academic partner may take part in the oral exam as a guest.
You can apply for admission at any time. Enrolment - for which you need our admission - will then take place for the respective possible semester. However, different enrolment deadlines apply for our Doctoral Study Programme than for the undergraduate degree programmes.
Dates:
- We can usually admit you for the current summer semester by the beginning of May and for the winter semester by the beginning of November.
- IMPORTANT for external candidates: If you come from outside JMU Würzburg, or if you were not enrolled at the University of Würzburg in the previous semester, you must complete your online enrolment by the end of April and the end of October.
Yes, between completing your studies and starting your doctorate at the GSH, you can have any previous work you have already completed credited to your curriculum if it is "Graduate School-equivalent". Irrespective of this, you can already start your doctoral thesis and work together with your - provisional - Supervisory Committee; you will therefore not lose any time until you formally start your doctorate with us.
