Framework Conditions

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:

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:

There are many different ways to finance a doctorate, ranging from

• qualification positions at a chair or professorship (internal doctorate), to positions in structured
• Positions in structured programs,
• positions in third-party funded projects,
• scholarships,
• part-time jobs or positions in companies, through to private
• private financing through a student loan, through your parents, your partner or yourself.

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.

In 2019, the DFG updated its guidelines for safeguarding good scientific practice (DFG Code).

Good scientific practice

• means working at the state of the art and always using the latest research findings.
• requires the critical examination of both one's own scientific findings and those of other scientists and scholars, and the verification of these findings.
• is characterised by strict honesty with regard to the contributions of partners, competitors and predecessors.
• includes careful quality assurance, the documentation of all steps relevant to the research process and the preparation and maintenance of empirical research data. This ensures the comprehensibility and reproducibility of research results;
• ensures the preservation of intellectual authorship in publishing by means of the correct use of citations.
• allows and encourages critical discourse in the scientific community.

Gute wissenschaftliche Praxis...

• bedeutet, lege artis zu arbeiten und sich stets nach dem neuesten Erkenntnisstand in der Wissenschaft zu richten.
• bedingt die kritische Auseinandersetzung sowohl mit eigenen als auch von anderen Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern erzielten wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnissen und deren Kontrolle.
• ist gekennzeichnet durch die Wahrung strikter Ehrlichkeit im Hinblick auf die Beiträge von anderen.
• umfasst die sorgfältige Qualitätssicherung, die Dokumentation aller im Forschungsprozess relevanten Arbeitsschritte und die Aufbereitung und Pflege empirischer Forschungsdaten. Dies gewährleistet die Nachvollziehbarkeit und Reproduzierbarkeit von Forschungsergebnissen.
• sichert die Wahrung geistiger Urheberschaft beim Publizieren durch den korrekten Gebrauch von Zitaten.
• erlaubt und fördert einen kritischen Diskurs in der wissenschaftlichen Gemeinschaft.

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.