Doctorate at the Faculty of Arts
1. I would like to do a doctorate at the Faculty of Arts. What do I need to do?
Acceptance as a doctoral candidate and admission to doctoral studies at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Potsdam
- You have a doctoral project and a supervisor at the Faculty of Arts
- Please submit the following documents to the Office of the Doctoral Committee in the Dean's Office of the Faculty of Arts:
- Before initiating a Cotutelle de Thèse Promotion, the supervisor is asked to arrange an information meeting with the chair of the doctoral committee.
- The Doctoral Committee recommends that all doctoral candidates become members of the Potsdam Graduate School (POGS).
2. My dissertation is ready. I would like to defend it.
Opening of the doctoral procedure
Submit an application to open the doctoral examination procedure. According to the doctoral degree regulations (PromO §6), the following documents must be submitted:
- Informal application to the Chair of the Doctoral Committee to open the doctoral procedure. Your application must include the following:
- Subject in which the doctorate is to be awarded
- Declaration of who supervised the dissertation
- Suggested reviewer with address*
- Declaration that the dissertation has not been submitted in its current or any other version to another faculty or equivalent university
- Declaration that you are familiar with the doctoral degree regulations
- Signed curriculum vitae with previous publications
- Certified transcript of your university degree
- Certificate of enrolment for the current semester or a police clearance certificate or proof of employment in the public sector or a church institution or the certificate of exmatriculation, which must not be older than three months at the time of submission of the application
- Printed and bound dissertation in triplicate and 1 electronic version (flash drive)
(Please note that the declaration of independence of the electronic version must also be signed). Please refer to the layout instructions.
*The application for the opening of the doctoral procedure may be accompanied by a proposal for a second assessor. This reviewer must be habilitated and from another university.
The doctoral committee now opens the procedure, appoints an examination committee and obtains the reviews.
The reviewers should submit their reviews of your dissertation to the Dean's Office within twelve weeks. Once the reviews have been received, the dissertation and reviews are displayed in the Dean's Office of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. The display period is two weeks during the lecture period and four weeks during the lecture-free period.
After the display period, you will receive notification of the acceptance of your dissertation and its evaluation as well as the date for the oral examination. You may now inspect your reports in the Dean's Office after making an appointment with the office of the Doctoral Committee.
3. I have defended my dissertation. What are the next steps?
Publication of the dissertation and submission obligation
After the defence, you will receive a provisional certificate from the Dean with the evaluation of the dissertation and the overall result. This certificate does not authorise you to use the title "Dr. phil.".
After your main supervisor has approved your dissertation for printing, the Dean will issue a printing authorisation, which you must submit to your publisher before your dissertation is printed.
With the copy of your publishing contract, you can submit a written application for the title. You will then receive a certificate authorising you to use the title "Dr.phil.".
Please note: The dissertation must be published within two years of the oral examination and submitted to the University Library free of charge.
If you are unable to meet this deadline, you can submit an application to the Chair of the Doctoral Committee for an "Extension of the deadline for submission of specimen copies". If you already have a publishing contract, the deadline is automatically extended by a further year. You do not need to submit an application.
The following forms of publication are permitted:
- as a monograph by a commercial publisher, they must be labelled as a dissertation of the University of Potsdam
- in a journal
- in electronic form on the publication server of the University Library at: publishup.uni-potsdam.de/opus4-ubp/home/index/help/content/checklist
- by the doctoral candidate in a permanently bound form; the number of copies to be submitted is 20
Obligation to deliver to the University Library:
In the case of publication by a commercial publisher, six copies must be submitted to the University Library: https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/opus4-ubp/home/index/contact
If the publication is in electronic form on the publication server of the University Library, five copies in bound form and the electronic version must be submitted: https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/opus4-ubp/home/index/contact
4. How do I get my doctoral certificate?
After fulfilment of the submission obligation, the doctorate is awarded by handing over the doctoral certificate. The doctoral certificate will be sent or, if desired, presented by the Dean at the annual faculty party held in the summer.