Please refer to the doctoral degree regulations applicable to you to find out whether enrollment in a doctoral degree program is a prerequisite for taking up a doctorate at your faculty. If you have any questions about your doctoral regulations, please contact the Dean's Office of your faculty.
The doctoral degree regulations that apply to you may not stipulate compulsory enrollment. However, it may be advantageous for you to enroll for the purpose of doing your doctorate. Compared to a doctorate without enrollment (see below), you have the following advantages:
| Enrollment | ID for external doctoral candidates | |
|---|---|---|
| UB (Lending) | yes (with CampusCard) | no (Special pass for doctoral students can be applied for at the University Library) |
| UB (E-media) | yes | yes |
| Access to the intranet | yes | no |
| eduroam | yes | no |
Bus pass | yes (with CampusCard) | no |
| Canteens/Cafeterias | yes (with CampusCard) | no |
| Costs | Semester fee | none |
| Possibility of extension | yes (look above) | yes (until completion of the doctorate) |
| Extension through | Re-registration through payment of the semester fee | automatically until completion of the doctorate |
| Contact person | Student Registration Office | Graduation Centre |
As a doctoral candidate, you are not subject to any enrollment deadlines and can therefore apply for enrollment at any time.
Enrollment for the purpose of doctoral studies is possible for a period of eight semesters. You will therefore be automatically de-registered at the end of eight semesters unless you can justify that an extension of enrollment is necessary for important objective reasons. To do this, send an informal letter to the Registrar's Office, signed by you and your supervisor.
If you are de-registered before you have completed your doctorate, you need not fear any disadvantages for your doctoral procedure. You can end your doctoral procedure regardless of your student status.
The enrollment process differs depending on whether you are already enrolled as a student at the University of Passau or not. You can find more detailed information on the following page:
If you do not wish to enroll but would still like to receive a ZIM ID and university e-mail address, you can do so via the Graduate Center. The ZIM ID is required, for example, to log in to Stud.IP, the Passau learning management system, or to access e-media in the university library.
Non-matriculated external doctoral candidates receive an identifier and an e-mail address (according to the pattern “firstname-surname@uni-passau.de”) upon request. You can also extend your existing ID or e-mail address on request if you are still doing your doctorate but are no longer employed and/or enrolled.
There are many different ways to finance a doctorate, ranging from
With any form of funding, it is important that you have enough time left over to work on your dissertation. While this is often no problem with scholarships, it is more difficult for all those doctoral students who have to finance themselves through jobs at a chair, professorship or elsewhere. Good consultation with the respective employer is therefore always a prerequisite for successfully completing the doctorate within a reasonable period of time.
A qualification position at the institution where the dissertation is being written is one of the more common ways of obtaining funding, alongside a scholarship. As a rule, you must apply for such qualification positions. The employment contracts of academic and artistic staff at state universities and research institutions are subject to the Academic Fixed-Term Contract Act (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz).
Since 2007, the Academic Fixed-Term Contract Act (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz - WZVG) has regulated how employment contracts for academic and artistic staff at state universities and research institutions can be limited in time. The core of the law is the twelve-year rule: each qualification level (doctorate and habilitation) may not last longer than six years, i.e. 6 + 6 = 12. After 12 years, employees should only be employed on a permanent basis or have been appointed to a professorship or chair in the meantime.
However, this rule does not apply if you work in a third-party-funded position. However, their contract periods are always included. So if you have worked on a third-party funded project for two years after your doctorate, you only have four years left for your habilitation.
The Academic Fixed-Term Contracts Act has been amended to prevent short-term contracts for early career researchers. The amendment to the law has been in force since 17 March 2016. One of the aims of the 2021 coalition agreement of the Federal Government is to improve working conditions in academia and, among other things, to reform the Academic Fixed-Term Contract Act on the basis of the evaluation of the effects of the amendment to the law. On 24 March 2024 the Federal Government adopted a reform proposal.
Further information can be found on the website of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the DFG. You may also wish to familiarize yourself with the legal text and/or the Ministry's case collection and please contact the Human Resources Department with any questions regarding your contract situation.
The University of Passau's Thesis Starter Grant serves as bridging funding for the upcoming doctorate and enables the acquisition of funding for the completion of a doctorate at the University of Passau.
For this purpose, successful applicants receive financial support for an initial period of six months. The funding period should then be used to prepare a thesis for application to a doctoral funding organization or to obtain a position funded by third parties.
Further information and contact details can be found on our Thesis Starter Grant website:
The Knowledge Transfer and Business Start-Up Support Unit supports researchers at the University of Passau in project planning and networking with partner companies from the business world.
The aim of the Transfer Department is to intensify transfer activities across subject, faculty and university boundaries. The following activities contribute to this:
Further information and contact details can be found on the website of the Department for Transfer and Start-up Support.
In 2019, the DFG updated its guidelines for safeguarding good scientific practice (DFG Code).
Good scientific practice
Gute wissenschaftliche Praxis...
In accordance with its legal responsibility for the organization of research, teaching and the promotion of young researchers, the University of Passau has issued the Statutes for Safeguarding Good Scientific Practice and for Dealing with Scientific Misconduct. These rules are based on the Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Scientific Practice of the German Research Foundation (DFG) and are binding for all members of the University of Passau's academic staff and an integral part of the training of young academics. The Permanent Commission for the Investigation of Allegations of Scientific Misconduct is the point of contact for all matters relating to good scientific practice and suspected scientific misconduct.
The professional and responsible handling of research data is an essential foundation of scientific work and an important part of good scientific practice.
Research data management is part of good scientific practice and was included by the German Research Foundation (DFG) in its guidelines for safeguarding good scientific practice in 2019 (guidelines 7, 10-15, 17). Consequently, this means that - regardless of third-party funding - the respective subject-specific standards and methods should be taken into account when collecting, processing and analyzing research data and the handling of research data should be documented transparently and comprehensibly throughout the entire research process. Research data management covers the entire “data life cycle”: from the initial planning of the research project, through the viewing, collection, preparation, processing and analysis, to the backup, publication or deletion of the research data.
The Representative Council for Academic and Artistic Staff is your first point of contact for any questions you may have regarding your status group at the University. The Representative Council represents early career researchers and scholars at the University, i.e. lecturers, graduate research and teaching assistants and assistant professors (the Akademischer Mittelbau). You will find further information on the Representative Council website. They also issued an Onboarding guide for new members at the University of Passau:
