Application with foreign certificates
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Before the doctorate: acceptance, registration, enrollment with international certificates
1.Obtaining information
- I need to find out about the faculties.
- I need to find out whether the university offers the doctoral degree that I am planning to gain.
- I need to find out about the various types of doctorates.
- I need to check whether the university degree, which I gained abroad, is recognised here: the anabin database for foreign university degrees.
- I need to find out about the conditions for acceptance.
- I need to find out about financing and scholarships.
Graduates who have studied to qualify as a teacher for primary schools or for primary and lower secondary schools must complete additional activities in the acceptance procedure. You will find a summary of the type and scope of these activities here.
2.Looking for a supervisor
- I need to narrow down the faculty that is most suitable for my topic.
- I need to go through the list of faculties. (You will find detailed information on doctoral procedures under the headline "research".)
- I need to find out about the individual specialist fields on the faculties’ websites and the lecturers based there.
- I need to discover information about the content of the units of instruction that are available and the contact details from the lecture list.
- I need to contact potential supervisors.
- As soon as I have found a supervisor, I need to write my research proposal (at least 5 – 10 pages, including a bibliography and a schedule in tabular form, if possible) in conjunction with my supervisor.
If you are seeking to gain a doctorate, the first step involves looking for a supervisor for your doctoral project. This will usually mean supervisors at the University of Kassel, who have been appointed to the faculty where you would like to study for your doctorate. They will support you in selecting your topic and methodology, planning your work and the individual further training opportunities.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to provide any central service to find supervisors.
When making contact, please attach your CV, your certificates and any publications in addition to the outline of your research project.
3.Supervision agenda
- You need to go through the supervision agenda with your supervisor.
All doctoral candidates at the University of Kassel must sign an agreement with their supervisor, what is known as the supervision agenda. It helps to synchronise the mutual expectations during your PhD studies and plan various aspects at an early stage – e.g. attending conferences, publication strategies. A copy of the fifth page must be submitted to the Doctoral Office. We urgently recommend that you update the supervision agenda every year and this is the precondition for any extension to agreements during the qualification phase.
4.Application
uni-assist
- I will find information about the application procedure on the uni-assist website: "Apply". “How to apply”
- If necessary, I take a look at the how-to webinars on the application procedure via uni-assist.
If you are a prospective student (including Germans and EU citizens) with a first professional qualification from abroad, you must always apply via uni-assist. uni-assist is the German service point for international student applications and processes international student applications.
Uploading the documents in the uni-assist portal is the first step. The application is only complete when you transfer the application fee afterwards.
The application process is completely online. Please do not send any documents by mail to uni-assist.
5.Acceptance procedure
Between examination and decision
If you have successfully completed the online application portal, uploaded your documents and submitted the application digitally, you will then receive an electronic confirmation of receipt to your e-mail address.
The doctoral office
- checks your application for completeness and requests any missing documents and
- determines whether the formal requirements for acceptance as a doctoral candidate have been met and
- forwards your application to the relevant doctoral committee.
The doctoral committee
- checks whether acceptance as a doctoral candidate is possible,
- whether any conditions need to be fulfilled or
- whether an aptitude assessment procedure must be initiated and
- informs the doctoral office of the result.
The overall process can take up to two months. Please refrain from enquiring during this time. As soon as the doctoral office has received the result, they will contact you by email.
Please memorise your access data for the eCampus. You will be regularly informed about the status of your application by e-mail. If any documents are missing for processing your application, you will also be informed on this by e-mail. As a precaution, please also check your spam folder to see if you have received an e-mail from the University of Kassel.
6.Enrolment (optional)
Once I have received my notification of acceptance, I can
- apply for my visa or
- extend my visa at the foreigners’ registration office or
- initiate the optional enrolment process as a doctoral candidate at the University of Kassel or
- apply for a scholarship.
This link takes you to the enrolment section at the eCampus. You will also obtain information on this site about which other documents you need to submit to successfully enrol at the student affairs office.
It is possible to enrol for a summer semester until 10th May and for a winter semester until 10th November.
Enrolment is voluntary. Once you enrol, you will receive a CampusCard; this not only enables you to eat at reduced prices in the cafeterias at the University of Kassel and use the libraries, but it is also your semester ticket to use public transportation free of charge in parts of the state of Hesse or upgrade the ticket to travel in Germany.
7.Arriving in Germany, making preparations
As I am travelling to Germany from abroad, I need to find out about what preparations I need to make to travel. The web pages of theWelcome Centre provide detailed infomation on all necessary steps and procedures that I need to keep in mind.