Admission requirements and enrolment
Depending on whether you wish to pursue a doctoral degree or to organise a doctoral research stay at Trier University, you need to meet different admission requirements. Generally speaking, admission requirements are more comprehensive for degree-seeking doctoral students than for visiting scholars.
Doctoral Studies at Trier University
If you wish to pursue a doctoral degree at Trier University, you need to consider the following four steps:
1) Admission requirements (Doctoral Degree Regulations)
If you wish to pursue a doctoral degree at Trier University, you first need to check whether or not you meet the admission requirements of your future faculty. Please consult the Doctoral Degree Regulations and responsible Dean’s Offices for detailed information. You may refer to the first link listed below in order to find out which faculty your future department belongs to.
Which faculty does my department belong to?
List of Doctoral Degree Regulations (Promotionsordnung)
List of Dean’s Offices (Dekanate)
Guest scholars who wish to organise a research stay at Trier University do not need to fullfil the faculty's admission requirements.
2) Finding a supervisor
Having verified that they meet the admission requirements of their faculty, future doctoral students of Trier University need to find a potential supervisor who agrees to supervise their thesis. Any professor doing research in any department at Trier University may be a potential supervisor.
Guest scholars who wish to undertake research at Trier University as a part of their doctoral thesis need to find a supervisor at Trier University who agrees to supervise their research during their stay in Trier.
How to find a supervisor?
In order to find a potential supervisor in your field of interest, please visit the website of your corresponding department and look up the professors listed on the website. You can check each professor's field of research to find out whether or not they fit your personal research interests. If you found a potential supervisor, you may wish to contact him or her by sending an email or formal letter, including the following information:
- a brief description of your field of interest and the topic you intend to address in your dissertation
- a short review of the relevant experience you have in this field
- a short review of the progess of your research and the reason for your research stay in Trier (for visiting scholars only)
- your curriculum vitae (CV)
More tips on how to find and contact a potential supervisor are provided on the websites of research-in-germany.
If there are no professors in your field of interest at Trier University, you can look up further universities that offer research in your field in Germany at Hochschulkompass.
3) Admission by the Dean’s Office
Once you have received an acceptance letter from your future supervisor, degree-seeking doctoral candidates need to submit this letter along with other documents (diplomas, etc.) to the Dean’s Office of their future faculty. The Dean’s Office will officially verify whether or not you meet the faculty’s admission requirements.
Doctoral candidates are strongly advised to enquire this verification before setting out for Germany, as they will not be permitted to do a PhD at Trier University if they do not meet the faculty’s admission requirements. Please note that in some faculties the assessment of your documents may take a couple of weeks or even months. We thus recommend contacting your Dean’s Office for detailed information on required documents and deadlines as early as possible.
Guest scholars who wish to organise a research stay at Trier University do not need to fullfil the faculty's admission requirements.
4) Enrolment (optional)
Once you have received an acceptance letter from your future supervisor and (in case of degree-seeking students) the admission letter from the Dean’s Office, you are ready to enrol as a doctoral student or guest scholar at the Admissions Office. PhD students and guest scholars usually register in person in the first few days after their arrival.
Please find here further information on the enrolment process.
Language skills/ requirements
At Trier University, it is possible to write your doctoral thesis in German or English. Depending on the language in which you intend to write your thesis, different regulations on proof of language proficiency apply. Please find here more information on language requirements.
Registration deadlines and semester dates
There are no registration deadlines for individual doctoral studies and ressearch stays at Trier University. Nevertheless, we recommend starting your doctoral studies or research stay at the beginning of the winter or summer term. This way you will able to benefit the most from the semester fee, our integration services and languages courses.
If you are interested in one of our university’s structured doctoral programmes, you need to consider the registration deadlines of each programme. Structured programmes do usually start at the beginning of the winter or summer semester.
Please find here the current semester dates.
Doctoral Research Stays
If you wish to organise a a doctoral research stay at Trier University, you need to consider the following two steps:
Finding a supervisor (compulsory)
Having verified that they meet the admission requirements of their faculty, future doctoral students of Trier University need to find a potential supervisor who agrees to supervise their thesis. Any professor doing research in any department at Trier University may be a potential supervisor.
Guest scholars who wish to undertake research at Trier University as a part of their doctoral thesis need to find a supervisor at Trier University who agrees to supervise their research during their stay in Trier.
How to find a supervisor?
In order to find a potential supervisor in your field of interest, please visit the website of your corresponding department and look up the professors listed on the website. You can check each professor's field of research to find out whether or not they fit your personal research interests. If you found a potential supervisor, you may wish to contact him or her by sending an email or formal letter, including the following information:
- a brief description of your field of interest and the topic you intend to address in your dissertation
- a short review of the relevant experience you have in this field
- a short review of the progess of your research and the reason for your research stay in Trier (for visiting scholars only)
- your curriculum vitae (CV)
More tips on how to find and contact a potential supervisor are provided on the websites of research-in-germany.
If there are no professors in your field of interest at Trier University, you may wish to look up further universities who offer research options in your field in Germany at Hochschulkompass.
Enrolment (optional)
Once you have received an acceptance letter from your future supervisor and (in case of degree-seeking students) the admission letter from the Dean’s Office, you are ready to enrol as a doctoral student or guest scholar at the Admissions Office. PhD students and guest scholars usually register in person in the first few days after their arrival.
Please find here further information on the enrolment process.
Depending on how much time you will to spend to do research at Trier University it may be beneficial to register as a guest scholar. Please contact us for advice.
Please check the current application deadines and semester dates.
Registration deadlines and semester dates
There are no registration deadlines for individual doctoral studies and ressearch stays at Trier University. Nevertheless, we recommend starting your doctoral studies or research stay at the beginning of either a winter or summer term. This way you will able to benefit the most from the semester fee, our integration services and languages courses.
If you are interested in one of our university’s structured doctoral programmes, you need to consider the registration deadlines of each programme. Structured programmes do usually start at the beginning of either a winter or summer semester.
Please find here the current semester dates.
