Doctorate:

The following doctoral degrees are awarded in School I:

Doctor of Philosophy (Dr phil.)

or

Doctor of Economics and Social Sciences (Dr. rer. pol.)

Doctoral achievements:

1. written doctoral thesis (dissertation)

There are no binding specifications for font size, paragraphs, margins, binding, etc. in School I. It is advisable to choose a form that is easy to read and offers opportunities for marginal notes. Any "wishes" and suggestions from the reviewers should be taken into account.

Recommendations for cumulative dissertations

1. A cumulative dissertation is possible within the framework of the valid doctoral degree regulations in consultation with the respective dissertation supervisor. The choice of the "cumulative dissertation" option must be indicated on the proposal for admission to doctoral studies.
2. In accordance with Section 8 (3) sentence 4 of the doctoral degree regulations dated 21 April 2020, one of the two reviewers evaluating the dissertation must not have been involved in any of the publications submitted for the cumulative dissertation.
3. A cumulative dissertation consists of at least three thematically related individual papers (usually articles) that meet the quality standards of recognised peer-reviewed journals. Two of the papers should have successfully passed the peer review process of a recognised journal at the time of submission of the dissertation. The final decision on the suitability of unpublished manuscripts is the responsibility of the supervising reviewers. Reports (research reports, working reports), research notes, reviews or publications in proceedings of a conference that have not undergone a peer review process in the above sense are not individual theses in the sense of a cumulative dissertation. Manuscripts must fulfil all the requirements that are customary for peer-reviewed theses. It is generally recommended to follow the guidelines of the respective scientific societies as well as the recommendations of the first supervisor.
4. The internal research context of the individual theses submitted must be presented in a detailed introduction in accordance with the applicable doctoral degree regulations § 8 (3). This must address the overarching scientific problem or methodology, the questions of the individual theses, the approaches used and the results and conclusions reached.

2. oral doctoral performance (thesis defence)

Presentation: 30 minutes

Discussion: up to 90 minutes

open to the university

Application procedure

The topic of the dissertation should be agreed with a university lecturer or a habilitated member of the relevant subject area. He or she supervises the dissertation from a subject-related perspective and is the first supervisor.

Acceptance or admission by the School's doctorate committee is mandatory for enrolment as a doctoral candidate. Acceptance is a preliminary stage to admission and requires fewer documents. It enables enrolment in order to obtain doctoral candidate status; nevertheless, a proposal for admission must still be submitted at a later date. With admission, doctoral candidates are asked to enrol.

Deadlines begin to run from the time of admission: On the one hand, there must be a minimum period of one year between admission and submission of the thesis; on the other hand, the thesis must be submitted within 5 years of admission. In special cases, a deviation from these deadlines may be authorised on proposal.

Acceptance as a doctoral candidate

Acceptance as a doctoral candidate can take place prior to formal admission

For this purpose, a supervision agreement(Annex 5 of the Doctoral Regulations) as well as certified copies of the university entrance qualification (usually Abitur certificate) and the university degree entitling the candidate to a doctorate (usually Master's degree certificate) must be submitted to the Doctorate Committee. The form for the proposal for acceptance as a doctoral candidate can be found on the homepage with all the documents to be submitted. You will receive written notification of acceptance.

*If you have a university degree obtained abroad, you must first write to the Central Office for Foreign Education in Bonn (ZAB) to request an assessment of the equivalence of your degree with that obtained at a German university. This is done by the administrative office (Ms Inge Wiehebrink) after all documents have been submitted.

Admission as a doctoral candidate

The application for admission must be submitted in writing to the Chair of the doctorate committee. The documents are to be submitted to the administrative office (Ms Inge Wiehebrink) by prior appointment. The respective meeting dates of the doctorate committee, together with the submission deadlines for the respective meeting, can be found on the School I homepage at
.

The documents required for the proposal for admission as a doctoral candidate can be found in
§ 7a (2) of the PromO.

The form "Application for admission to doctoral studies" can be found on the homepage, as well as the form "Supervision agreement".

The documents for the proposal for admission may also include "special applications". (See below.)

Special cases and proposals in connection with the application for admission

• If the dissertation is to be written in a language other than German, an informal proposal must be submitted to the doctorate committee.
• Bi-national doctoral degree procedures (§ 1 para. 2 PromO): Here, the cooperation partner must be named upon admission. In these cases, a relatively complex co-operation agreement must be concluded between the University of Oldenburg and the partner university.
• Work that has already been published can be recognised as a dissertation ( § 8 Para. 3 PromO). This also requires "a self-contained presentation of the research work and its results".
• Cumulative dissertations (Section 8 (3) PromO) require the approval of the doctorate committee for admission.
• Joint dissertations (Section 8 (4) PromO) are possible. The suitability of the topic for a joint thesis is formally determined by the doctorate committee after hearing the applicants. The individual contributions must be attributed to the respective author (this must be listed in detail in the affidavit when the procedure is initiated).

Initiation of the doctoral degree procedure

The initiation must be applied for within 5 years of admission. An extension/reduction of the initiation period is possible on proposal (§9 para. 1 sentence 3 PromO). The reasons and period by which the period is to be extended/shortened must be stated in the proposal. Please note: If the proposal to initiate the doctoral degree procedure is not submitted on time or if the deadline or grace period is not met, the doctoral application is deemed to have been withdrawn.

Important note for old procedures:
The new 5-year deadline in the doctoral degree regulations applicable to all is mitigated by the fact that the wording "as a rule" gives leeway for justified old cases to proceed appropriately. This is intended to avoid hardship caused by the deadline in the new doctoral degree regulations. With an acceptable justification, the initiation application can also be submitted after the expiry of the 5 years.

The following documents must be submitted for the application for initiation:
Note: It is possible to submit the subsequent proposals for a) and b) first (due to the dependence of the doctorate committee meetings) and submit the dissertation with a time delay.

• As a rule, 6 copies of the dissertation (for each member of the examination committee and one copy for the file).
• The following 4 declarations to be signed are included at the end of each copy:

1. Declaration in lieu of an oath that the thesis was "prepared independently and without unauthorised help from others and that the ideas taken directly or indirectly from external sources have been identified as such".
2. Informal declaration that "the content of the dissertation has not already been used predominantly for a Bachelor's, Master's, Diplom or similar examination paper."
3. Informal declaration that "the regulations on good academic practice of the University of Oldenburg have been followed."
4. Informal declaration that "no commercial placement or counselling services (doctoral counselling) have been used in connection with the doctoral project."

• If necessary, proof of current enrolment certificate
• Proposals for the referees and the other subject representative(s) for the examination committee
• Proof of any conditions imposed on admission, if applicable

Two informal proposals must be submitted:

a) Proposal for the appointment of the referees (s. § 6 PromO)

The proposal for the appointment of the first supervisor and the co-supervisor is made informally (please send digitally to Ms Inge Wiehebrink for decision by the doctorate committee. Please include the postal addresses of the supervisors).

b) Proposal for the appointment of the examination committee

The proposal is also informal and is sent digitally to Ms Inge Wiehebrink for approval by the doctorate committee. In addition to the supervisors according to § 6 PromO, the examination committee may include a doctoral research assistant authorised to teach independently with voting rights at the suggestion of the doctoral candidate. If you do not wish to make a proposal here, please indicate in the informal email your waiver of the appointment of the "examiner of choice". In consultation with your first supervisor, please state the name of an "examiner from a neighbouring subject area to the dissertation topic".
Please note: The majority of the members of the examination committee must belong to School I (§ 4 (3) PromO).

The composition of the examination committee is as follows:

Chair: Determined by the doctorate committee

First examiner: Proposal by doctoral candidate

Co-examiner: Proposal by doctoral candidate

Examiner of neighbouring subject: Specified by the doctoral candidate after consultation with the first supervisor

Examiner of choice: Suggestion doctoral candidate or waiver

Deadline for submission

The referees appointed by the doctorate committee have up to two months to prepare their reviews. Once the reviews/opinions have been received, there is a two-week period of public display. At the end of the deadline, the doctoral candidate receives written notification from the doctorate committee of the acceptance/rejection of the thesis, together with the marking for the thesis. The doctoral candidate receives a copy of the reviews.

Thesis defence

After acceptance of the dissertation, the thesis defence (§ 11 PromO) is scheduled. This should normally take place within 4 weeks of acceptance. The doctoral candidate agrees a joint disputation date with the members of the examination committee and informs Ms Inge Wiehebrink of this in order to arrange the next procedural steps. The doctoral candidate will receive a written invitation, as will all members of the examination committee. The thesis defence comprises a public lecture of up to 30 minutes on the objectives, methods and results of the dissertation and a discussion of up to 90 minutes immediately following the lecture. After completion of the thesis defence, a written notification of the assessment of the doctoral performance is issued.

Publication

The dissertation must be published within one year of the thesis defence (§ 13 PromO). Prior to publication, approval for printing must be obtained from the first reviewer. Approval for printing can be granted informally. It is usually forwarded digitally to Mrs Inge Wiehebrink.

Depending on the form of publication, different numbers of specimen copies must be submitted. These delivery items are to be provided with a "special feature" (§ 13 para. 2 PromO). This provides for the information from Appendix 1 in the title page.

The most common forms of publication are

Publisher's publication: three copies of the book and a copy of the publishing contract stating the number of copies (min. 150 copies). Alternatively, three self-printed copies can be submitted with the publishing contract in order to speed up the delivery of the certificate.
Note: The three copies must be provided with a title page, the front and back of which must be designed according to the sample in Annex 1 of the doctoral degree regulations. They must be printed on non-ageing, wood and acid-free paper and be permanently bound (minimum requirement: adhesive or thermal binding in soft cover design - no spiral binding!

Electronic publication: Electronic version, the format and further details of which must be agreed with (Tel. 0441/798-4895 or 0441/798-4040) by the University Library. The release of the dissertation for publication issued by the first examiner must also be submitted. (A copy remains in the doctoral file.)

Cumulative doctorate: Three hard-bound copies of the dissertation and a certificate from the first reviewer stating that significant parts of the dissertation have already been published or are in the process of being published. This also includes a list of sources for the published parts.

The publication deadline can be extended by the Chair of the doctorate committee in accordance with Section 13 (4) PromO. This requires an informal proposal stating the reasons and the period by which the deadline is to be extended.

Delivery of the certificate

The doctoral certificate will only be issued once the publication obligation has been fulfilled (Section 14 (3) PromO). It is not permitted to use the doctoral title before this.

Completion of the doctorate

§Section 12 (3) PromO: The doctorate is completed when the doctorate committee determines that the thesis defence has been passed.

However, the doctorate is only completed when the certificate is awarded.