Doctorates
General Information
Your contact at the Dean’s Office of the WiSo Faculty concerning applications for admission to doctoral studies, credit transfers for examinations and requests to take the doctoral examination is Ms Mundorf (tel. +49 221 470-3213; fax +49 221 470-5179).
The office is closed 2 October 2020.
e-mail: promotion
wiso.uni-koeln.de
For initial consultation please use the contact form.
Consulting Hours: cancelled due to current development regarding the COVID-19
Doctoral Procedure
The Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences offers a variety of options for doctoral studies. In addition to the traditional individual doctorate at a chair of the university, you also have the option to become a member in one of our research groups (e.g. DFG Forschergruppe “Design and Behavior”) or you enroll in a course as a scholar of the Cologne Graduate School in Management, Economics and Social Sciences.
We recommend you to contact a professor of your field of expertise and discuss a possible personal supervision.
The application for admission to doctoral studies should be filed promptly, as soon as you have received the consent of your academic supervisor. The substantive admission requirements are detailed in Section 4 of the Doctoral Regulations. Without admission to doctoral studies, you cannot enroll as a doctoral student, nor can you acquire certificates for doctoral achievements pursuant to Section 5 of the Doctoral Regulations.
Admission, in particular, of international graduates or the holders of degrees other than those offered by the WiSo Faculty is subject to the decision of the Doctoral Committee. In planning your schedule, please note that the Committee as a rule convenes only once per semester.
If you have an international degree, please note the information of the ´Akademischen Auslandsamt der Universität zu Köln`.
Upon completion of your dissertation, you must personally hand in your doctoral examination request at the Dean’s Office using the prescribed form sheet. Here again, Ms Mundorf is the responsible contact.
The disputation, the oral examination, conduces to the defence of the scientific results of your dissertation in front of three professors. The disputation starts with a short presentation of 15 minutes about your most important findings. The following discussion will relate to the presentation and the objective and methodical fundamentals of the dissertation.
After passing the examination, doctorands are awarded their degree on the occasion of a public ceremony, whereupon they vow to the Dean that they will prove themselves worthy of the doctorate at all times. Parents, friends and colleagues are welcome guests at doctoral ceremonies.
Doctoral Regulations of WiSo Faculty
Doctoral Regulations 2015 (English)
Amendment to the Doctoral Regulations 2015 (English)
The Doctoral Degrees Board has decided that all regulations, that are for the benefit of the doctoral students, will be assigned from the PhD regulations of 2015 to the PhD regulations of 2008.
Doctoral Regulations 2008 (English)
Admission
Please fill in the “Admission Form for Doctoral Studies according to §4 of Doctoral Regulations” (note below).
The printed version has to be submitted with your documents (certiied copies) to the doctoral office.Upload all documents (including the Admission Form) to Docfile.
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Doctoral Studies
The Course of Doctoral Studies
Cologne Graduate School in Management, Economics and Social Sciences (CGS)
- Course Catalogue of the Cologne Graduate School
- Homepage of the Cologne Graduate School in Management, Economics and Social Sciences (CGS)
A CGS certificate can be obtained for every course with ECTS listed on the CGS course list.
Within the doctoral regulations of 2008, at least 3 lectures/exercises (= methods & theories) and at most 2 doctoral colloquiums are required.
Within the doctoral regulations of 2015, at least 30 ECTS are required, of which at most 12 points can be acquired in research seminars or doctoral colloquiums.
Approval for a cumulative dissertation
Supervision Agreement
Self-quotation
Documents for submitting a dissertation
Since no personal consultation hours can be offered at present, the procedure has changed. Please upload all documents (including the application) to Docfile and send them in paper form to the doctoral office. Applications according to the Doctoral Regulations 2015 only need to send Bachelor's and Master's certificates and diplomas if they were not yet available at the time of application for admission to the doctoral programme. You will be notified when the application has been reviewed and you will be admitted to the doctoral examination. Then send the copies of the dissertation to your reviewers. Ask them beforehand whether a bound copy and/or a digital version is required.
Confirmation of the appointment of disputation
Schedule
Attendance examinations at the UoC in the winter semester 2020/2021 can only be carried out if the hygiene and infection prevention regulations of the UoC are observed. An oral defence can be held via conference call.
The dissertation reports (by the reviewers) and confirmation of the date of the oral defence (by the doctoral candidates) must be received by the doctoral office four weeks before the oral defence.
If the doctoral students have not objected to it, the oral defense is held publicly in the faculty. However, listeners do not have the right to contribute. Physical presence and personal contacts on the campus should be minimized i in winter semester 2020/2021..
Dates of the doctor pronouncements
Award ceremonies take place both at the end of the summer semester as well as towards the end of the winter semester. The competition is open to all those who have successfully completed the oral examination. Publication does not have to have taken place yet. The graduation ceremony in the winter semester 2020/2021 has been cancelled.
Winter Semester 2020/2021
- Public presentation of the doctoral degree on January 22th, 2021, has been cancelled.