Doing a Doctorate at the FH Potsdam

Until 2024, universities of applied sciences did not have an independent right to award doctorates in Brandenburg, i.e. the doctoral procedure could only be registered at a university. A cooperative doctorate involves joint supervision by a professor at a cooperating university and a professor at the FH Potsdam.

Around 40 doctoral students are supervised at the FH Potsdam who are doing their cooperative doctorate together with a university in Germany or abroad. Through our personnel development and promotion of early career researchers, you will be integrated into a network of early career researchers that promotes exchange among peers and supports them with further training programmes.

A doctorate is usually carried out in a third-party funded project in a fixed-term position as a research assistant in the TV-L 13 salary group. The level depends on previous professional experience, which can be taken into account for the advertised position. In addition, the doctorate can also be financed by a scholarship or other means. The position is advertised publicly.

Current vacancies at the FH Potsdam

Following on from the concept of dual study programmes and in order to enable a successful triad of research, teaching and practice, the FH Potsdam is testing dual models of promoting young talent in the P³Dual project, with half-funded positions (50% at the FH Potsdam and 50% at the practice partner), which opens up career prospects within and outside the UAS Potsdam.

As a Doc Dual within the framework of P³Dual, you will be involved in one of our three profile lines "Digital Transformation – Urban Future", "Forming Society" or "Design ∙ Build ∙ Preserve". The programme enables you to fulfil the necessary appointment requirements (§42 BbgHG) for a FH professorship "on your way" to becoming a professor. At the same time, you will participate in our personnel development and promotion of young talent and be part of a network that supports exchange between peers.

All Doc Dual qualification positions within the P³Dual programme have been successfully filled.

Since 2024, the new State Higher Education Act has provided the opportunity to do a doctorate at the Brandenburg Doctoral College. This is currently being prepared. You will find out more shortly.

In the case of an external doctorate, you will have a second supervisor at the FH Potsdam, but no employment contract with us. You are doing your doctorate in parallel with another job (part-time) or are funded from another source. Please bear in mind that in most cases it will take you longer to complete your dissertation if you are working at the same time, especially if your doctoral project is not related to your professional activity.

External organisations and foundations offervarious scholarship opportunities.

If you are interested in doing a doctorate at the FH Potsdam, please contact a potential supervisor at our university. Together with the supervising professor, the first step is to identify a research topic that is suitable for a doctorate.

Your informative E-Mail should include information about your previous academic achievements, the topic of your Master's thesis and the field in which you would like to specialise. Therefore, illustrate how your research interests and experience can fit in with the professor's research. It is certainly helpful to know the relevant publications of the professor in question.

If you already have an exposé, please send this along.

Once you have found a supervisor, you can also discuss funding options with them, e.g. whether a position in a third-party funded project would be available or whether you need support in applying for a scholarship. External organisations and foundations offer various scholarship opportunities.

Since a doctorate at the FH Potsdam is currently only possible in the form of a cooperative doctorate , contact is made with a professor at a university in consultation with the selected supervisor at the FH Potsdam in order to find out whether they are suitable for joint supervision of the doctoral project. As a rule, professors have good contacts with university professors in their field and can help in the search for a suitable supervisor.

A supervision agreement signed by all parties involved facilitates the coordination and communication process during the doctorate, as it provides for joint meetings to determine the topic, schedule and milestones, among other things, and defines the relationship between doctoral candidates and supervisors transparently for both sides. A supervision agreement is a prerequisite for doing a doctorate at the FH Potsdam.

The exact procedure of the doctoral procedure is regulated by the respective doctoral regulations of the cooperating university/faculty. Depending on the institution, they may differ in their structure.

Official admission to doctoral studies is based on the guidelines of the respective cooperating university/faculty and is regulated in the doctoral degree regulations of that university/faculty. These also regulate further requirements for admission, such as a (very) good university degree or examinations that must also be completed or proven at some universities.

The process of writing your dissertation can be divided into different phases (for orientation):

1. orientation and planning phase

2. research and material procurement phase

3. survey and evaluation phase

4. writing phase

5. finalisation phase

6. publication phase

Start creating a document in good time and use it as a structuring aid. If you don't get into a writing flow, you can use the time to collect ideas in another subject area, read texts, revise or format pages.

If you have the feeling that you are not making any progress on your own, do not hesitate to contact other doctoral candidates or us.

Once you have successfully completed your dissertation, you submit your thesis to your cooperating university together with the relevant documents. The documents required are described and regulated in the doctoral degree regulations of your cooperating university. The individual universities may differ in this respect.

In the course of this procedure, you will receive an invitation to the defence after your thesis has been assessed. Once you have successfully defended your thesis and it is ready to be printed, as well as your certificate of submission of a certain number of copies (regulated in the respective doctoral degree regulations of your university), the doctoral degree certificate will be issued and handed over to you.