If you are thinking about doing a doctorate, then you should have a concrete idea in which subject area you want to do it. Try to find a question that interests you. If you are applying or have already applied for a position as a research assistant at a chair, then your topic will most likely be chair-related. Then you can go directly to step 3.
If you want to do your doctorate as a so-called "external" or so-called "external" person, i.e. without being employed as a research assistant, then go to step 2 now.

If you would like to do your doctorate at our department, the first and most important step is to find a suitable supervisor. The supervision can only be provided by a university lecturer (supervisor), see Promotionsordnung § 4 Abs.1.


On the website of the department you will find an overview of all chairs and teaching areas.

As soon as you have found a potential first supervisor, you should contact them and enclose your curriculum vitae and a description of your doctoral project. Make sure that your desired topic actually fits into the supervisor's research area. Please refrain from impersonal mass enquiries.

As soon as you have found your supervisors or are employed as a research assistant according to WissZeitVG with a qualification reason, you must conclude a supervision agreement with your supervisor as soon as possible. If you are financed by third-party funds (so-called third-party funding), you must do so when you wish to begin your doctorate.

The supervisor will check whether the admission requirements according to § 2 (1) and (3) have been met, inform the departmental council via the dean of the acceptance of the doctoral candidate* and state the provisional subject of the dissertation as well as the subject area to which the doctorate is to be assigned.

If an admission decision according to § 2 paragraph 2 is required (no degree in Business or Economics), the departmental council will make this decision at the next meeting following the notification.

You will be notified in writing of your acceptance as a doctoral candidate. Together with the acceptance you will also receive the entitlement certificate for registration and optional enrolment as a doctoral candidate (see step 4).

As a doctoral student  you are obliged to register at the TU Kaiserslautern.
The registration takes place after acceptance as a doctoral student (see step 3).

You can also register as a doctoral student*.

As an enrolled doctoral student* you have student status and therefore:

•   Access to the services of the computer centre
•   Access to the courses offered by the VKB and university sports
•   Entitlement to the semester ticket (public transport in the VRN area)
•   Access to the halls of residence of the Studierendenwerk
•   Access to the university canteen with student status

Costs: 232,23 € per semester (as of April 2020)

Registered doctoral students have the rights and duties of students and, for the purposes of representation on the committees, belong to the group in accordance with § 37 paragraph 2 sentence no. 2 HochSchG (i.e. they belong to the group of students and not to the group of academic staff)! Research assistants who register as doctoral students remain in the status group of research assistants (if the employment contract covers more than one 0.5 TVL position).

For registration and optional enrolment, the  application for registration/enrolment of doctoral candidates must be completed and submitted to the Student Service Center.

With the acceptance as a doctoral student you participate in the structured doctoral program.

The aim of the structured doctoral program is to provide scientific support and encouragement to doctoral students in the course of their doctoral studies. The structured doctoral program aims to provide doctoral students with a basis for writing their dissertation and to prepare them for their doctorate in a targeted manner and within an appropriate time frame.

The structured doctoral programme is designed to run for four years for research assistants and is adapted to the individual situation for external doctoral students. The four-year programme is divided into three phases:  Phase I: 2 years; events with a methodological focus and lecture Phase II: 1 year; transition to the third phase and scientific contribution Phase III: 1 year; writing the dissertation; involvement of the second reviewerThe supervision agreement governs the progress of the dissertation.

As soon as you have completed your dissertation, the doctoral process can begin.
To do this, you submit the application for admission to the doctoral program. The application must be submitted in writing to the Dean of the faculty. The application must be accompanied by the documents required in §5 paragraph 2.

On the basis of the documents submitted, the faculty council decides on admission to the doctorate.

Upon admission, the faculty council appoints two reporters to evaluate the dissertation (first and second reviewer). The supervisor of the dissertation according to § 4 is always one of the examiners.

The faculty council appoints a doctoral committee when it appoints the examiners. This consists of a chairperson, who must be a professor in the faculty, and the examiners.

The Chair of the PhD Commission will inform you of the decision of acceptance (or non-acceptance), the grade of the thesis and the examiners (as per § 9 Para. 2).

A further examiner and the Chairman of the Examination Committee for the disputation on the thesis will be appointed at a further meeting of the Faculty Council.


The disputation consists of a lecture in which you report on the content of the dissertation and an immediately following public discussion of the dissertation.


At the end of the oral procedure, a transcript of records will be issued, which will contain the grade of the thesis, the grade of the oral procedure and its weighting with regard to the overall grade and the overall grade of the doctorate.

The dissertation must be published within one year after the oral examination/disputation. The printed manuscript must be submitted to the first supervisor, who must agree to the publication of this version. A dissertation is considered published if it fulfils the conditions according to § 11 of the doctoral regulations. Only after publication of the doctoral thesis is the doctoral certificate handed over and only then may the doctoral degree be held.