Around 120 universities in Germany offer opportunities for graduates to follow up their academic studies with a doctorate. Each year sees around 25,000 postgraduates gain a doctorate in Germany.

Financing Doctoral Studies.
At present, practically all doctoral programmes in Germany are tuition-free. The DAAD offers a wide range of funding opportunities with which you can finance your stay in Germany. For detailed descriptions of these please go to the DAAD Scholarship Database.

Entry Requirements for Doctoral Studies
As a rule, a requirement for acceptance as a doctoral student is an outstanding degree in the corresponding subject area. This degree must have been gained in a university programme after at least eight semesters of study (4 years).

In these requirements Germany is slightly different to Australia where a high standard four year honours degree is required for admission to a Master’s degree. However a usual course to a doctorate in Australia is an upgrade of that Master’s candidature to Doctoral status upon satisfying the university of your fitness to do so. In Germany a good honours mark should allow you to apply for immediate admission to a doctoral candidature.

Note also that in Germany more and more doctoral degree regulations now also provide opportunities for the admission of particularly qualified graduates who hold only a three year  Bachelor's degree. No nationwide ruling exists on this in Germany, because the doctoral regulations are a matter for the respective university faculties. In general, you will be able to find the doctoral regulations on the university website.

Applying for a Doctoral course
The best way to find out which universities in Germany offer which doctoral programmes is to consult the following websites: www.hochschulkompass.de or www.forschungsportal.net. It's important to know that there is no central admissions or selection office for doctoral students. The decision is made solely by the accepting university, with the academic supervisor playing the key role. So, if you want to do a doctorate in Germany, your first job is to find a professor who might be suitable to supervise you. The next step is to contact the that chosen supervisor. If the prospective supervisor is interested in taking you on as a doctoral student, you will be asked to outline your research project in greater detail (50 to 100 pages). In some cases, you may also be required to take written or oral tests.

Language of the Thesis
If you wish to write your thesis or dissertation in German, you need to be able to prove your proficiency in the language by presenting a DSH or TestDaF certificate. However, many doctoral regulations meanwhile also provide for the opportunity to write the thesis or dissertation in English and to complete the viva voce examination in English as well. The respective doctoral regulations govern all details. And, of course, it is of foremost importance that your supervisor agrees to you submitting your thesis or dissertation in English.

The "Master-Apprentice" Model
Germany does not traditionally have a system of Graduate Schools, Graduate Centres or Graduate Colleges that support and guide students to their doctorate in a structured programme; nor is there a binding curriculum that needs to be completed during the doctoral phase. The production of a doctoral thesis or dissertation is the core element of the doctorate. Students agree their topic with a supervising professor and then produce a thesis or dissertation as a piece of independent research work. Since there is no curriculum, there is also no set length for doctoral studies and no obligation to attend courses.

Structural Doctoral Program
Recent years have increasingly seen structured programmes, so-called Doctoral Programmes, Graduate Schools, Doctoral Colleges, Graduate Centres or Graduate Colleges develop. Many of these programmes have an international focus. They have the following advantages: flexible admission procedure; English as the main language of the studies; Supervision agreement between the university and the doctoral student which allocates at least two supervisors to each doctoral student; Intensive supervision under the institutional responsibility of the university; Curricular programmes, both in core subject and cross-disciplinary fields; etc.
In total, Germany's universities currently offer around 360 programmes, of which around 130 have an international focus. Some of these programmes are listed in the DAAD database on "International Degree Programmes in Germany", while we present an outline of other programme providers on the webpage on "Structured Doctoral Programmes".