To-Do before arrival to Germany

You decided to pursue doctoral studies or to organise a research stay at Trier University? That’s great!

In the following, we provide a list of things that need to be taken care of before taking off to Germany. Please be aware that some of these things may require long preparation time. We thus recommend to start planning on your doctoral studies or research stay in Germany around 9 to 12 months before the estimated starting date of your research.

 

Doctoral studies or research stay at Trier University

Individual doctoral studies

There are no registration deadlines for individual doctoral studies at Trier University. Yet, before taking off to Trier you need to find a supervisor in one of the faculties of Trier University and check with the Dean’s Office of your future faculty whether or not you fulfill the admission requirements for doctoral studies.

Structured doctoral programmes

If you are interested in one of our university’s structured doctoral programmes, you need to consider the registration deadlines of each programme. Please get in touch with your future supervisor or the programme coordinator for more information. You will also need to check with the Dean’s Office of your future faculty whether you fulfill the University's admission requirements for doctoral studies

Research stay

You can individually arrange a research stay with a supervising professor who is active in your research field at Trier University. There are no registration deadlines for research stays. However, if you are planning to stay for a period longer than one month, we recommend beginning your stay along with the start of the summer or winter term, as you may need to pay the semester contribution fee if you wish to use the university’s facilities such as the library or internet access. Please check out the current semester dates.

Required documents

You will need to bring a range of different documents for your student enrolment at Trier University. Please find a list of the required documents in the admission requirements section. If you miss to bring required documents, it may take a lot of time and money to get everything organised and we would like to help avoiding this problem.

Furthermore, please note the following recommendation of documentsthat you should bring along when entering Germany.

Entry requirements and visa

Depending on your citizenship, you may be subject to visa obligations when entering The Federal Republic of Germany. In order to apply for a visa, you need to contact a German embassy in your home country.

Funding

Prior to your PhD or research period at Trier University, you need to ensure sufficient funding of your stay. Here you will find information on study fees and living expenses as well as funding options of doctoral studies at Trier University.

Life in Trier

Insurance

When enrolling as a doctoral student at Trier University, you will need to provide evidence of health insurance coverage. Depending on whether you receive financial support through a scholarship or through working as an employee at Trier University, you are bound into the German social security system in different ways. In any case you need adequate health insurance coverage.

Accommodation

There are various types of accommodation available in Trier to satisfy everyone’s personal preferences. We recommend start looking for accommodation as early as possible, as the housing market is quite tense, especially around the semester start.

Getting to Trier

You may either get to Trier by airplane (arriving at one of the airports in the near area), by train, by bus or by car.