Doctorate (PhD)

Academic Requirements

The academic requirements for a doctorate at the TU Braunschweig are:

• a good or excellent university degree at Masters level
• at least 5 years of study
• completion of the Master's programme with a final project or a written thesis

Language Requirements

If you apply for a doctoral degree you do not necessarily have to pass a German language test. You should clarify with your faculty or supervisor, which language requirements you must fulfil, what German proficiency level is being demanded and what language will be used in your dissertation.

To find a professor, who will supervise your work, you first need a detailed idea of the area or the subject you wish to research. Next you can find out, in which institute at the TU Braunschweig this work would be possible:

Core research areas at the TU Braunschweig

Institute at the TU Braunschweig

Then submit a draft outline of your proposed area of research and your CV to the faculty, institute or directly to a professor who is working in your chosen research field.

If you have found a supervisor for your doctoral thesis, the TU Braunschweig must assess and recognise your degree. We need the following documents from you:

• Bachelor´s certificate and all transcripts in the original language and in German or English translation
• Master´s certificate and all transcripts in the original language and in German or English translation
• CV

Please send all documents in a PDF file to:

more(at)tu-braunschweig.de

We will then inform you whether your degree can be regarded as formally sufficient for admission to doctoral studies at the TU Braunschweig.

Please note, that in some cases we will have to contact the Standing Conference (Zentralstelle für ausländisches Bildungswesen) in written form. and that in this case the recognition procedure can take up to eight weeks.

When you have clarified all the above mentioned requirements you submit your complete application to the Mobile Researchers’ Centre.

Please complete our Online Application Form for PhD students:
To the Online Application

Your application must contain complete evidence of your previous university education. The following documents should be included with your application form:

• Passport sized photo
• Documents of your university degrees (bachelor´s + master´s degree and all transcripts) in original language and in German or English translation
• Topic of your doctoral thesis
• PhD students at Faculty 1 and 3: Declaration from your supervisor at the TU Braunschweig (proof that you have been accepted by a supervisor and statement about the language your thesis will be written in)
• PhD students at Faculty 2, 4, 5 and 6: Declaration from your supervisor and letter of admission from your Faculty
• DSH-2 certificate or exemption from doctoral supervisor at TU Braunschweig
• Certificate of exmatriculation (if you have already been enrolled at a German university before)
• Letter of scholarship award (if applicable)

All documents must be copies in the original language accompanied by a German or English translation. Documents issued in English do not need to be translated. You will have to show the original certificates or certified copies within your enrolment semester otherwise you cannot validate your TUcard for the following semester.

Please note that there are two application procedures, one with the Mobile Researchers’ Centre and one with your faculty. You can find the contact persons for PhD students on the website of each faculty:
To the faculties of the TU Braunschweig

Very important: You should also register with your faculty as soon as possible.

Help us process your documents quickly by submitting them in full.

There is no deadline for PhD students, they can start at any time of the year. But you should keep in mind that you always have to pay the fees for an entire semester. The winter semester is always from October 1^st to September 30^th and the summer semester from April 1^st to March 31^st.
The processing time for applications is approx. 6 weeks from receipt of all complete documents. Once we have checked and processed your application, we will send you a letter of acceptance with all the further steps.

By the way, on our website you will find many other useful information about your stay for example to find an accommodation:
To the MoRe-Website