Information for cultural and geoscientific doctoral students who were accepted before 23.09.2016

Please refer to the 2015 Doctoral Regulations ( Official Gazette of the University of Osnabrück No. 10/2015 dated December 17, 2015, (PDF, 148 kB)effective from December 17, 2015, through October 21, 2016) or the 2013 Doctoral Regulations ( procedures from July 11, 2013, to December 16, 2015, Official Gazette UOS No. 06/2013 dated July 11, 2013 (PDF, 114 kB)) of the Department of Cultural and Geosciences. The following information is intended solely to provide a brief overview of the doctoral procedure and does not address any special cases.

For academic achievements in the fields of geography, history, art history, art/art education, or textile design, the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Dr. phil.) is conferred. For academic achievements in the field of geography, the degree of Doctor of Natural Sciences (Dr. rer. nat.) may also be conferred. The doctoral program serves to demonstrate the ability to conduct in-depth, independent academic research. 

Main Procedure
The application for admission to the doctoral program ( Application Form 2015 (PDF, 155 kB);  Application Form 2013 (PDF, 44 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 the originality of the academic work ( form (PDF, 17.68 kB)) should be signed and bound into the dissertation as the last page. 

Section 9, paragraph 2, sentence 4 of the Lower Saxony Higher Education Act requires doctoral candidates to be enrolled as doctoral students. The application for enrollment is submitted online through the  university’s Student Affairs Office. Please note that proof of enrollment must be provided at the time of the application for admission (i.e., upon submission of the dissertation) in the form of a copy of the certificate of enrollment.

After approval by the Doctoral Committee, the committee appoints the members of the Doctoral Commission, whom you may propose in consultation with your advisor using the application form mentioned above.

Upon receipt of the reviews, the dissertation—along with the reviewers’ (examiners’) anonymized grade recommendations—will be made available for confidential review by doctoral candidates and faculty members of the department for a period of three weeks. This is followed by a two-week period for submitting comments.

After the dissertation is accepted, an oral examination in the form of a defense takes place before the doctoral committee. The unrounded grade for the dissertation is weighted at 2, and the grade for the oral examination is weighted at 1 in the final grade. Upon successful completion of the defense, you will receive a provisional doctoral certificate upon request.

In accordance with § 15 of the Doctoral Regulations, the dissertation must be made available to the academic community in an appropriate manner within 12 months of passing the oral examination ( Guidelines for Publication (PDF, 91 kB)). A sample text for the approval forms used by the reviewers (examiners) to grant permission for publication is included in Appendix 3 of the doctoral regulations. Once the dissertation has been published, the doctoral diploma is awarded, and only then does the candidate have the right to use the doctoral title.