Information for cultural and geoscientific doctoral students who were accepted before Oct. 2016

Please refer to the  Doctoral Degree Regulations (PDF, 148 kB) of the School of Cultural Studies and Geography for detailed explanations. The following explanations only serve to briefly outline the doctoral procedure and do not deal with any special cases.

The degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Dr. phil.) is awarded for academic achievements in the field of Geography, History, Art History, Art/Art Education or Textile Design. The degree of Doctor of Natural Sciences (Dr. rer. nat.) may also be awarded for academic achievements in the field of geography. The Doctorate serves as proof of the ability to carry out in-depth independent scientific work.

Main procedure
The application for admission to the Doctorate (application form (PDF, 217 kB)) must be submitted together with four copies of the dissertation (title page template (DOC, 23 kB)) and the attachments listed in the application form. The  declaration of independence of the academic work performed (form) (PDF, 8.63 kB) should be included in the dissertation as the last signed page. It is recommended that the summaries in German and English are also included (before the table of contents).

Section 9, paragraph 2, sentence 4 of the Lower Saxony Higher Education Act provides for the enrollment of doctoral candidates as doctoral students. The application for enrollment is made online via the  Admissions Office of the University. Please note that proof of enrolment must be provided at the time of application for admission (i.e. when submitting the dissertation) with a copy of the certificate of enrolment.

After admission by the doctoral committee, the committee will appoint the members of the doctoral committee, who you can propose in consultation with your supervisor using the application form mentioned above.

After access to the reviews, the dissertation with the anonymized grade proposals of the reviewers (referees) will be made available for three weeks to the doctoral members and members of the school for confidential inspection. This is followed by a two-week period for the preparation of comments.

Once the dissertation has been accepted, an oral examination takes place before the doctoral committee in the form of a disputation. The unrounded grade of the dissertation is included in the overall grade with a weight of 2 and the grade of the oral examination with a weight of 1. Upon successful completion of the oral defense, you will receive a provisional doctoral certificate upon request.

Within 12 months of passing the oral examination, the dissertation must be made available to the scientific public in an appropriate manner in accordance with § 15 of the doctoral degree regulations (information on publication (PDF, 93 kB)). A sample text for the revision bills, with which the referees (reviewers) give their approval for publication, can be found in Annex 3 of the Doctoral Degree Regulations. After publication, the doctoral certificate is issued and only then does the candidate have the right to use the doctoral title.