Doctoral Studies
The Doctoral Regulations of the Department of History and Cultural Studies, which came into force on October, 22, 2020, can be viewed in FU-Mitteilungen 40/2020, (English version in progress). They are valid in conjunction with the 1st order amending the Doctoral Regulations (English version in progress) and the 2nd order amending the Doctoral Regulations of the Department of History and Cultural Studies (English version in progress), and replace the Joint Doctoral Regulations for Dr. phil./Ph.D. of Freie Universität Berlin dated December 02, 2008 (English translation) according to which some doctoral candidates were still admitted.
The following is a list of doctoral subjects at the Department of History and Cultural Studies, for which admission can be applied for:
- Ägyptologie
- Altamerikanistik
- Altamerikanistik/Kulturanthropologie
- Kulturanthropologie
- Altorientalistik
- Arabistik
- Chinastudien
- Sinologie
- Geschichte
- Didaktik der Geschichte
- Iranistik
- Islamwissenschaft
- Japanologie
- Japanstudien
- Judaistik
- Klassische Archäologie
- Koreastudien
- Kunstgeschichte Europa und Amerika
- Kunstgeschichte Ostasiens
- Kunstgeschichte Afrikas
- Prähistorische Archäologie
- Religionswissenschaft
- Semitistik
- Turkologie
- Vorderasiatische Archäologie
- Wissensgeschichte des Altertums
You can apply for admission to doctoral studies (German/English) at any time. You are not bound by any deadlines. All documents can be submitted digitally as pdf files by e-mail.
Certificates and diplomas must be submitted either in original or as a certified copy to the PhD Office by prior appointment or by postal mail.
After you have submitted the complete documents to the PhD Office, the department’s Doctoral Board will check whether the requirements for admission have been met. If this is the case, admission will be granted. If necessary, it can be combined with subject-specific conditions. In any case, you will be informed of the Doctoral Board’s decision by e-mail.
If you are not an employee of Freie Universität Berlin, you must enroll as a doctoral student at the Student Records and Registration Office of Freie Universität Berlin within one month of admission.
If you do not apply for enrollment by the deadline, your admission to the doctoral studies will be revoked. Employees of Freie Universität Berlin are requested to enroll, but are not obligated to do so.
When applying for admission to doctoral studies, proof must be provided that the foreign language requirements listed in the foreign language regulations have been met for the respective doctoral subjects. Please submit the proof together with the other application documents by e-mail.
The Doctoral Board may waive the proof of foreign language proficiency upon reasoned request. In this case, your supervisor must prepare a suitably justified, informal application to be enclosed with the documents.
Proof of proficiency at level C1 of the Common European Framework of References for Languages (CEFR/GER) or - in case of German - DSH2 is required for the language in which the doctoral work (dissertation and defense) is to be completed.
Accepted certificates on C1-level are:
- Cambridge Certificate
- IELTS
- TOEFL
- UNICERT
- or proof of equivalent knowledge
Please submit the proof of language proficiency together with the other application documents by e-mail.
If you are likely to exceed the processing time deadline, please submit an Application for Extension of the Standard Processing Time to the PhD Office by e-mail. In addition, you need to submit a time schedule and a preliminary table of contents. If you have been admitted more than six years ago, the application must also be signed by your supervisor.
Please note that you need to be enrolled until the defense when applying for an extension.
With the extension granted by the Doctoral Board, you can extend the enrollment period.
If the working title of your dissertation changes during the processing period, you must submit an Application for Change of the Working Title. Your supervisor must confirm with his/her signature that it is a change to the title and not to the topic of your dissertation. Once the change has been approved by the chair of the Doctoral Board, you will receive a confirmation of the change.
An application for change ofthe working title can be made at the latest when submitting the dissertation.
If you have been admitted under one of the older Doctoral Regulations and you wish to change to the new Doctoral Regulations from 2020, you can submit an Application for Change of Doctoral Regulations.
The newer Doctoral Regulations from 2020 have the advantage that, in accordance with Section 10.2, you will already be sent the reports - without suggested grades - at the time of the display in preparation for the defense. According to the older Doctoral Regulations from 2008, you will only receive the reviews for inspection after the defense.
Please note that the name of your doctoral subject may change due to the change of doctoral regulations. A list of the doctoral subjects in the Department of History and Cultural Studies can be found on page 12 of 16 of the Doctoral Regulations.
Your dissertation must at first be submitted digitally and the following documents must be submitted by e-mail:
- Your dissertation as pdf sent from your FU e-mail address
- If the file size of your dissertation is too large, please use the Box FU and let us know the link
- Declaration of Consent to waive the data protection
- filled-in and signed form „Composition of the Doctoral Committee” (Doctoral Regulations 2008 or Doctoral Regulations 2020)
- Please also provide the contact details of all committee members (e-mail and postal addresses)
- Filled-in and signed form “Type of Doctoral Studies”
- current certificate of enrollment
- scan of a valid official identity document
- if applicable, the form „Application for Change of the Working Title“
- if applicable, documents regarding the structured doctoral program: letter of admission and the supervision agreement with the structured doctoral program signed by the supervision team
The following should be included in the appendix of your dissertation:
- Summary of the results in German and English
- List of publications resulting from the work on the dissertation
- additionally, the articles must be submitted separately as PDF’s
- Statement of Independence
- short CV (optional)
Please do not print your dissertation until the staff of the PhD Office asks you to do so - the number of printed versions to be submitted will be communicated to you at that time. Usually, that is one copy each for the reviewers and one copy for the PhD Office. The printed copies can either be sent by post or submitted at the PhD Office by appointment. Please do not use ring binding!
As a rule, the doctoral committee consists of the reviewers and at least two further professors as well as a research assistant with a doctorate who is employed by Freie Universität Berlin or by a member of the faculty. The doctoral committee should not include more than one retired university professor. Further requirements for the composition of the doctoral committee are regulated in Section 9 of the Doctoral Regulations 2008 or the Doctoral Regulations 2020.
As soon as the Doctoral Board has confirmed the procedural step of the submission of your dissertation and the composition of the doctoral committee, you and the committee members will be informed about it by e-mail. The supervisors have an assessment period of ten weeks. You and the committee members will be informed about the deadline.
Once the reports have been received, the PhD Office will prepare the display. The display period according to the Doctoral Regulations 2008 is two weeks during the lecture period and four weeks during the lecture-free period; according to the Doctoral Regulations 2020 it is ten working days during the lecture period and twenty working days during the lecture-free period. Within the display period, the professors and doctoral members of the faculty can inspect your dissertation and the grade proposals. The display will take place digitally via corresponding e-mail distribution lists.
The defense is open to the public unless you object. When you submit your dissertation, you will be asked on the form “Composition of the Doctoral Committee” (Doctoral Regulations 2008 or Doctoral Regulations 2020) whether you wish to allow or exclude the public.
On behalf of the chair of the Doctoral Board, the PhD Office will invite you to the defense about two weeks before the date. Therefore, please let us know the date, time and room of your defense in good time. Please note that defenses should primarily be held as face-to-face events. For defenses to be held in a digital or hybrid format, you need to send a reasoned application to the PhD Office in time and have it approved by the chair of the Doctoral Board.
The defense begins with an approximately 30-minute presentation in which you present and explain the results of your dissertation and its significance in a broader academic context. Then you defend your dissertation against criticism and answer questions from the members of the doctoral committee, after which the chair of the doctoral committee may allow questions from the public on the dissertation topic. The debate must last at least 30 minutes and should not exceed 60 minutes.
Please note that the defense may only take place after the display period! Please take this into account when planning your defense.
Once the PhD Office has received your defense documents, you will receive a provisional certificate by e-mail confirming the successful completion of your doctoral procedure.
The doctoral degree may only be carried after the dissertation has been published within the publication period and the doctoral degree has been awarded by handing over the doctoral certificate. The provisional certificate also does not entitle the holder to use the title “Dr. des.”
You can de-register after passing the defense, but no later than the end of the semester in which the defense was passed. Please submit an application for de-registration due to completion of studies to the Student Records and Registration Office. If you do not apply for de-registration for the next semester and simply do not re-register, you will be exmatriculated ex officio by the university.
To obtain the final printing/publication permission, please submit the printing permissions of the reviewers of your dissertation to the PhD Office. Please make sure that the information regarding the dissertation and publication title in the supervisors’ printing permissions is the same and up-to-date.
The department's final printing/publication permission will be sent to you and the Dissertations Department at the University Library (Hochschulschriftenstelle) of Freie Universität Berlin.
After completing the doctoral procedure, you are obliged to publish your dissertation. The publication period is two years after the defense; an extension can be requested from the Doctoral Board.
Before publication, you must obtain the final printing/publication permission of the version to be published.
You fulfill your publication obligation by submitting the number of deposit copies specified in the Doctoral Regulations to the Dissertations Department at the University Library of Freie Universität Berlin, the central acceptance point for dissertations. Please always follow the guidelines of the Dissertations Department at the University Library, only then you can be sure that your deposit copies will be accepted. You can find the latest information on the number of deposit copies to be submitted on the website of the Dissertations Department under the section “Legal Requirements”.
After successful submission of the required deposit copies, you and the PhD Office will receive a confirmation of receipt by e-mail from the Dissertations Department (Hochschulschriftenstelle).
As soon as the confirmation from the Dissertations Department at the University Library has been received that the deposit copies have been submitted, you will be contacted by the PhD Office and asked to send documents for the issuance of the certificate and the award letter. Upon receipt of the certificate, you will be awarded the academic degree “Doktor der Philosophie” (Dr. phil.) if you have completed an individual doctorate or the degree “Doctor of Philosophy” (Ph.D.) if you have completed a structured doctoral program.
