General information and FAQ

• The basic requirement for starting your doctoral studies in Dr. med. vet. is a previous degree in veterinary medicine or a degree recognized as equivalent. The specific admission requirements are set out in the Doctoral Degree Regulations.
• Doctoral positions are usually advertised and often combined with employment. You can find offers either on the "Schwarzes Brett" (notice board) in TiHo-Studis under "Dissertationsangebote" (dissertation offers), in the general job market (page German only) or on the relevant institute/clinic pages.
  • Alternatively, you can also approach the institutes/clinics in question with a topic idea and discuss whether a doctorate is possible.
• The duration of a doctorate varies depending on your research area and your specific doctoral project.

The Doctoral Degree Regulations stipulate which persons may supervise doctoral candidates during a doctorate. As a rule, professors, junior professors, adjunct professors, non-tenured associate professors and disciplinary experts with a doctorate are available for supervision.

For your doctoral project, it is important that the supervisors are specialized in the subject area in which you would like to write your doctoral thesis. In addition to the professional match, the interpersonal level must of course also be taken into account, the importance of which should not be underestimated for a successful doctorate.

Once you have found a topic/project and a supervisor, you have to enrol as a doctoral student at the TiHo. You can find the required documents and deadlines under Enrollment, re-registration and de-registration for doctoral studies.

In your own interest, you should then also submit the dissertation announcement.

Short overview on procedure

You must submit all required documents for enrollment to the Promotionsbüro (Doctoral office), even if you have already submitted some of the documents elsewhere in the course of your employment.

General information on the preparation of dissertations
Allgemeine Information zur Anfertigung von Dissertationen (Promotion) (German)

In consultation with your supervisors, you can write either a monograph or a cumulative dissertation in either German or English.

Planned submission of the dissertation and re-registration

You must be a registered doctoral student in order to take all examinations in accordance with the Doctoral Degree Regulations. Whether you still have to re-register for the next semester depends on when you hand in your dissertation to the Doctoral office and when you will be taking your oral examination.

If in doubt, you should re-register. If you then take your oral examination in the current semester, you will be refunded the fees paid for the next semester.

You no longer need to be enrolled to submit your library copies.

• If the supervisory agreement is to be terminated and the doctorate not to be continued, a written notice of termination stating the reasons is required (see Application for termination of supervision). You should then submit the completed and signed application form to the Doctoral office together with the application for de-registration. Please note that your dissertation announcement will also lose its validity.
   
• If the supervisory agreement is to be terminated, but the topic/dissertation is to be continued under a different supervisor, please submit the signed application for a change of supervison(at bottom of the page: --> further applications/forms) to the Doctoral office.
  If your application is approved, please submit a new supervisory agreement upon request.

You can submit your documents (e.g. for enrollment, dissertation announcement, doctoral application) in person or by post.

If you wish to submit your documents in person, you should make an appointment with the Doctoral office.

In contrast to human medicine, a doctorate in veterinary medicine is only possible after completing the state examination. It is possible to contact an institute of interest to you in your final semester and discuss a possible doctoral thesis and possibly start some preliminary work, but the actual doctoral thesis should only begin after you have completed your undergraduate studies.

Dissertation announcements can be submitted throughout the year, there is no deadline. However, the announcements are collected and processed in a bundle. It can therefore take up to 2 - 3 months for a response.

In your own interest, you should submit the dissertation announcement at an early stage - preferably at the beginning of the work.
According to Section 4 of the Doctoral Degree Regulations 2016 and Section 6 of the Doctoral Degree Regulations 2025, there must be at least one year between submitting the dissertation announcement and submitting the application for opening the doctoral examination procedure.

Please also note that according to § 5 para. 3 of the Doctoral Degree Regulations 2025, you have to submit your dissertation announcement (including proof of attendance of the statistics course and a literature research course) to the Doctoral office within 1 semester after enrollment.

Please submit the documents for your dissertation announcement to the Doctoral office.

You will receive written feedback after the committee has reviewed the dissertation announcement. However, the announcement can only be approved once all documents have been submitted in full to the Doctoral office.

If you have already obtained a PhD degree at the TiHo, we generally recognize the achievements from the PhD programs as sufficient for the scientific preparation, so that the two courses no longer have to be completed.

You are welcome to print or glue the passport photo on the CV. It does not have to be biometric.

The Doctoral Degree Regulations contain a sample CV which can serve as a guide as to what information should be included. Of course, you can also submit a CV that you use for applications, for example.

Please make sure to include your address and other contact details in your CV.

Please also remember to date and sign your CV by hand.

Please leave the details of the second evaluator and the date of the oral examination blank for the reviewers' copies (see template page 2). Please complete this information for the library copies after the review and oral examination.

In § 9 of the Doctoral Degree Regulations 2016 and § 7 of the Doctoral Degree Regulations 2025 you will find information on the design of the title page and a reference to Annexes 5a and 5b or 3a and 3b (the templates can be found under Downloads - Regulations and Forms).

On the library's webpage there is information on the formal requirements, but these are not binding for the reviewers' copies. However, it makes sense to follow the library's guidelines so that the dissertation does not have to be completely reformatted for printing the library copies.

Both reviewers' copies must be printed in DIN A4. Adhesive or glue binding and spiral binding etc. are ok, i.e. a proper binding. A folder is not sufficient.

The dissertation should be printed on one side. In the case of very extensive work, the work can also be printed on both sides.

For the reviewer's copies, the submitted, accepted or published articles must be included in full in the dissertation. If the publisher does not allow the article(s) to be printed, please include the article in the submitted format and add the bibliographic information (e.g. Last name, first name: Article title. In: Journal title, volume number (year), issue number, p. first page-final page, DOI).

This is slightly different for library copies; please check the library's webpage.

You can find a template of the affidavit under Downloads - Regulations and Forms in the documents for the doctoral application. Please ensure that you adapt the declaration accordingly (including the title of your dissertation) and sign it personally. The affidavit must be included in German, even if your dissertation is written in English.

The affidavit does not have to be handwritten, but the handwritten signature is important.

You must submit a total of 3 copies of the affidavit. You hand in one copy as a document with the doctoral application and one copy as the penultimate page of each reviewers' copy.

What is meant by help through third-party?

This does not mean your supervisors. They are there to advise and support you methodically and professionally in the preparation of your dissertation.

However, you should mention persons, institutions, institutes etc. who have made a contribution or were involved in some way, e.g. in large analyses or similar, i.e. services that were carried out for you to an extent that is scientifically justifiable and permissible under examination law.

Co-authorship/double authorship does not count as third-party assistance, as your own contribution must be highlighted. The shares must be stated in the doctoral thesis.

Please also ask your supervisor what else is meant by this so that you are on the safe side.

Procedure after submitting the doctoral application
Ablauf nach Abgabe des Promotionsgesuches (German)

Please note: The dissertation will only be forwarded to the second evaluator for assessment once the first report and the seminar certificate from the supervisor or supervisory group have been received by the Promotionsbüro (Doctoral office). The first report and the seminar certificate should therefore either be brought in a sealed envelope when submitting the dissertation or sent directly to the doctoral office by the supervisor or supervisory group.

After passing the oral examination, you must submit the relevant copies of your dissertation to the library by the deadline. Information on the requirements can be found on the library's webpage.

In case of a planned application for industrial property rights, the publication of the dissertation can be delayed for a period of up to six months. A corresponding application must be submitted to the Doctoral committee at the time the thesis is submitted.

To apply, send the completed form 10 to the Doctoral office.

You will receive feedback on your application after the oral examination.

The blocking notice can be extended once by submitting a new application to the doctoral office.

Please note that the relevant copies of your dissertation must be submitted to the library by the deadline despite the application for delay in publication.

Please inform the Doctoral office by e-mail if your postal address changes after submitting your doctoral application so that we can send you the invitation to the oral examination, invitation to the doctoral graduation ceremony, etc.

Please also change your address in the system via TiHo-Studis.

Promovendi are presented with their doctoral certificates at the graduation ceremony. The graduation ceremony takes place twice a year:

• Summer graduation: in June
• Winter graduation: in December

The specific dates can be found in the schedule on the promotion homepage.

The procedure follows a strict protocol and can last 2 - 2.5 hours. Festive clothing is appreciated.

Initially, all promovendi will receive 3 tickets with the invitation to the graduation ceremony (1 ticket is for the graduate him/herself, 2 for accompanying persons).

Promovendi will receive further information with the invitation.

All promovendi will receive 3 tickets with the invitation to the graduation ceremony (1 ticket is for the graduate him/herself, 2 for accompanying persons).

Should you not be able to attend the event, please inform us and give back your tickets to the Doctoral office as soon as possible. We often receive requests from promovendi who would like to bring additional companions and require extra tickets. These tickets can then be passed on to other promovendi interested.

If you need extra tickets, please send an email to the Doctoral office.

Unfortunately, we can only start distributing the extra tickets about 1 week before the graduation ceremony. Tickets will be allocated in the order in which they are requested.