You can submit your application at any time. If all formalities (see "Which documents must be submitted for the application?") have been completed, you can start working on your doctorate immediately.

You have two options. You can either send your application directly to a professor or to the Graduate and Research Academy if a topic is advertised on the GraFA website. After checking the documents (completeness, fulfilment of admission requirements), the application will be forwarded to the relevant faculties.

If you have already found a supervisor who is willing to supervise you during your doctorate and you have agreed on the topic, please send the following documents to this person:

• CV
• Authorised copies of educational certificates (certificates and diplomas (for applicants with foreign qualifications: in original language and German or English translation))

If you are still looking for a supervisor, please send the following documents to the Graduate and Research Academy:

• Application form
• CV
• Officially certified copies of educational certificates (certificates and transcripts (for applicants with foreign qualifications: in original language and German or English translation))
• Proposal (detailed description of the planned doctoral topic). The proposal is required in order to select the appropriate professorship to which the application will be forwarded.

Please note that only complete application documents will be processed.

If a professor is willing to take on the supervision, the declaration of intent form must be completed and sent to the supervisor. In the same form, the supervisor gives their official approval for supervision.

After this, educational certificates obtained abroad are checked to determine whether the admission requirements for a doctorate are met, i.e. whether the degree obtained is equivalent to a German degree.

If admission is formally possible with or without conditions, the letter of intent including all application documents is submitted to the Faculty Council via the supervisor. This decides whether the applicant is actually admitted to the doctorate or not.

If admission to the doctorate is granted and no visa (foreign applicants) is required, the doctoral thesis can be started as soon as possible. Future doctoral candidates from abroad who require a visa now submit an application for admission to the degree programme on the university portal. They will then receive an admission letter and can use it to apply for a visa for Germany for the purpose of completing a doctorate.

As soon as all the formalities have been completed, work on the doctorate can begin.

A a href="https://tu-freiberg.de/en/grafa/doctoral-process-doctoral-office-documents">structured doctoral study programme is characterised by the completion of a specialist study programme and the acquisition of additional interdisciplinary qualifications in addition to research on the doctoral topic. After completing the structured doctoral study programme, the rigorosum can be waived upon application.

You can put together your own individual programme in consultation with your supervisor. However, you must note that a minimum number of credit points must come from subject-specific courses in which a graded performance record has been achieved (applies to doctoral students from Faculties 3 and 5). In addition, a maximum of 6 credit points can be recognised for your own teaching activities.

The regulations of the faculties can be found here (under structured doctoral training).

You do not have to register for a structured doctoral study programme, but you can do so at any time. To be on the safe side, you should submit an application to the Faculty Council at the beginning of your doctoral studies, proposing courses, lectures, etc. as a substitute for the rigorosum (in consultation with your supervisor). If the Faculty Council agrees, you would have the right to substitute the rigorosum if you fulfil all the requirements. You can submit the application at any time up to the submission of your dissertation. However, you then run the risk that the Faculty Council may not recognise some of the work you have already completed.

Doctoral candidates from Faculty 3 who are completing a structured doctoral study programme can apply to replace the rigorosum if they have achieved a minimum of 15 credit points.

Doctoral candidates from Faculties 5 and 6 require a total of 30 credit points. The faculty decides on an application to substitute the rigorosum on a case-by-case basis annually (Faculty 5) or at the end of the doctorate when the doctoral procedure is opened (Faculties 5 and 6).

The regulations of the faculties can be found here.

In Faculties 3 and 5, attendance of modules, lectures and courses (at TU BAF or at other universities and research institutions – see doctoral regulations of the respective faculty) are recognised in any case as a substitute for the rigorosum.

Please note that according to the doctoral regulations of the faculty you need at least 4 credits (Faculty 3) or 6-12 credits (Faculty 5) from specialised courses with a graded performance record. When completing modules, the number of points mentioned in the module handbook is awarded if all requirements are met.

Teaching (lectures, seminars and internships) can be recognised up to a maximum of 6 credit points.

The prerequisite for the recognition of achievements for the substitution of the rigorosum is that the courses attended have not already been completed as part of the degree programme(s) qualifying for the doctorate and that the achievements were completed within the doctoral studies (between the start of the doctorate noted on the "Declaration of Intent" or the date of the Faculty Council decision on admission to the doctorate and the date of submission of the dissertation).

Yes, with restrictions. Please note that each faculty can draw up its own special regulations for this. You can find the faculty-specific regulations under the heading "structured doctoral training".

You have various options:

Faculty 3 doctoral students can – as soon as they have achieved the required 15 credit points – submit an application to the Graduate and Research Academy (Dr Corina Dunger) to replace the rigorosum. She will make a recommendation to the Faculty Council. However, the Faculty Council alone decides whether to recognise the achievements listed in the application for substitution of the rigorosum.

For doctoral candidates from Faculty 3, the application for substitution of the rigorosum can also be submitted at the end of the doctorate at the same time as submission of the dissertation and opening of the doctoral procedure. Although doctoral candidates in Faculty 5 can apply annually for recognition of work completed to date, the application to replace the rigorosum can only be submitted at the start of the doctoral procedure, just as in Faculty 6.

For a better overview, the achievements that are claimed as a substitute for the rigorosum should be prepared in tabular form. Doctoral candidates from Faculty 3 should use the corresponding form; doctoral candidates from Faculty 5 can also submit an informal application.

The following achievements are recognised in Faculty 3 as a substitute for the rigorosum:

• subject-specific courses (lectures/modules) with or without a graded performance record
• subject-specific courses with or without a performance record
• interdisciplinary courses and courses in key qualifications (soft skills)
• presentations at national conferences
• presentations at international conferences
• Posters at national conferences
• Posters at international conferences
• Publications in national journals
• Publications in international journals
• Book publications
• Patents
• Own teaching (lectures, seminars, Laboratory Practicals) – with details of the course title, duration and the semester in which the course took place
• Supervision of student qualification theses (Bachelor's, Master's or Diploma theses) – with details of the name of the supervised student and the title of the respective thesis

Doctoral students of Faculty 5 should contact the Education Officer, Dirk [dot] Renker [at] tu-freiberg [dot] de (Dr Dirk Renker), for information on the recognition of specific achievements. Dirk Renker or the Dean's Council, Ulrike [dot] Moerters [at] fakultaet5 [dot] tu-freiberg [dot] de (Dr Ulrike Mörters).

Faculty 6 is subject to different regulations (Regulations of the Faculty of Business Administration and Economics - valid from 09.02.2021 and Regulations of the Faculty of Business Administration and Economics – valid for doctorates started between 7 August 2017 and 8 February 2021).

For all publications for which you are not the first author, please also indicate the percentage of your contribution. In the table, a column on the far right should be left blank for the entry of the credit points achieved.

Include (scanned) copies of all supporting documents (certificates, certificates of attendance, evidence of presentations given, posters and publications issued, evidence of your own teaching activities confirmed by your supervisor and supervised student qualification work) with your application. The originals must be provided for the graded certificates of achievement.

The following applies to doctoral students in Faculties 3 and 5:

The grade for the structured doctoral study programme is based on the graded performance records from the subject-specific courses. If several grades were achieved, the arithmetic mean of these grades is calculated. In the assessment of the dissertation, this grade (calculated in this way) will be used as a substitute for the rigorosum.

In any case, you should also take a look at the doctoral degree regulations. Section 15 contains all the regulations regarding structured doctoral studies.

Doctoral students in Faculty 6 do not receive a grade for the rigorosum.

According to the enrolment regulations of TU Bergakademie Freiberg, all doctoral candidates at our university can enrol as doctoral students. This is independent of whether the doctoral candidate is a research assistant or scholarship holder, whether he/she is doing a doctorate externally (doctorate at our university, but employed at a company, another university or a research institute) or whether he/she is self-financed.

Enrolment as a student is limited to the doctoral period specified in the declaration of intent. An extension of this period is possible with the agreement of the supervisor, if this is justified.

However, there is no obligation to enrol.