Doing a doctorate after graduation: sense & nonsense

The doctor is the highest academic degree and is usually earned through a doctorate at a university with a doctoral degree. But what does a doctorate on the job market bring?

Doctorate - What is a Doctoral Degree?

As a rule, it is scientific universities that award doctoral degrees. Anyone who has written a thesis (dissertation) that contains new scientific findings is admitted to the doctorate. The doctorate is a prerequisite for the habilitation. For special services to science, the university or the subject, a University without a dissertation the Doctor Ehrenhalber (Dr. hc or Dr. Eh) lend. Even outstanding personalities can receive this doctoral degree. The more precise modalities are regulated in the doctoral regulations of the respective university. In 2004 the doctoral degree was awarded to a total of 23.138 doctoral students. Of these, 2.518 linguists and cultural scientists were represented. For the humanities scholars, most of the dissertations were in the fields of history (476 doctoral students) and German studies (308 doctoral students).

Management of the doctoral degree

Unlike the honorary doctorate, the doctor is not legally considered to be a title, but an academic degree and as such is not part of the name, so it does not necessarily have to be mentioned when mentioning the full name (BGB §12). Nevertheless, it can still be entered as the only academic degree in a passport or ID card (PersAuswG § 1, PaßG § 4). Anyone who leads the doctor or a foreign equivalent without authorization must expect withdrawal and punishment, even if the entry in the passport has already been made (StGB § 132a).

Forms of doctorate - where and how can you do a doctorate?

In Germany, the doctoral degree can be acquired at a university, technical university, technical college, comprehensive college, music college, art college, sports college, medical or veterinary college, church college or college of education with the right to award doctorates. If you are interested in a doctorate, you should Choice not only based on his or her personal interest in a topic or on the location of the university, but also find out how a doctorate can be obtained at the university in question. He should think twice about whether he should opt for the traditional model that is still prevalent at the moment or whether he would prefer a structured doctorate. Finally, an external doctorate is also possible in principle, in which the dissertation is prepared relatively independently of the university. Databases such as the Higher Education Compass or the research portal provide an overview of doctoral opportunities in Germany.

Traditional doctorate - Humboldt's ideal of education

The classic path to a doctorate essentially follows the Humboldt educational ideal of doing a doctorate in “lonliness and freedom” (cf. Humboldt 1809/10, 250-260). Therefore, there is no fixed timetable, no fixed submission date and no attendance requirement. However, attending a doctoral colloquium and lecturing with the doctoral supervisor is welcome in many places. The dissertation is prepared in consultation with the supervisor as an independent research achievement. The right to supervise doctoral students is regulated in the doctoral regulations of the respective faculty. So both habilitated Professoren or private lecturers as well as juniorprofessorserve as a doctoral supervisor without habilitation. In some places, a “cumulative” doctorate on the basis of several publications is also possible without a separate dissertation being prepared. The oral doctoral performance is taken by selected faculty representatives and, depending on the doctoral regulations, consists of a disputation in which the dissertation is defended, or a rigorosum in which, similar to the Magister, the second major or minor subjects are examined. Precise information on the doctoral regulations can be found on the website of the respective university.

Long doctoral studies

This very free System has advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, the doctoral student has the opportunity to organize his or her time freely and has a large degree of independence. On the other hand, he must have sufficient independence and self-motivation to get through the three to five years on average until the dissertation is completed. In addition, a good relationship with the supervisor is essential if you want to do a doctorate successfully conclude. According to a study by the doctoral network Thesis from 2004, these general conditions have a number of disadvantages: around a quarter of the 10.000 doctoral students surveyed had to live with a long-term delay in completing their doctorate, for 58,4% of them there were additional scientific or organizational tasks at the university most important reason for this. In some departments, doctoral students were also required to work 10-12 hours at the weekend for the university institute.

suggestions

In order to improve the situation of doctoral students, the authors of the study propose reducing dependency on the doctoral supervisor as much as possible, better training the doctoral supervisors for supervision and setting up arbitration boards to settle disputes. In fact, doctoral students have little legal opportunity to defend themselves against injustice. However, contact points can be the Dean or doctoral networks such as Thesis. The supervision situation leaves a lot to be desired: around 15% of all doctoral students are not supervised at all by their official doctoral supervisor, more than 40% of doctoral students are wholly or partly supervised by assistants or other doctoral students. About 70% of the prospective Doctores have never attended a congress abroad. That two-thirds of those surveyed nevertheless with their situation satisfied according to the study, can be explained by the low expectations of doctoral students (cf. Briede/Gerhardt/Mues 2004, 16-22; 29).

Structured PhD - A new PhD model

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