Doctorates @ HHN

Please contact the Heilbronn University Research and Graduate Center to arrange an initial consultation. Please use the contact form:

You arrange your doctoral relationship with the first supervising professor of your doctoral project in the form of a supervision agreement:

In consultation with your future supervisor, prepare a research exposé in which you describe your PhD topic.

In Baden-Württemberg, the universities of applied sciences (UAS) have the right to award doctorates according to the association model. Heilbronn University, where the doctorate is conducted, is one of the supporting universities of the Baden-Württemberg Doctoral Association.

The next step is to apply for admission as a doctoral candidate at the Promotionsverband BW.

Once you have been accepted as a doctoral candidate by the Promotionsverband BW, you are obliged to enrol at HHN unless you wish to refrain from doing so under certain conditions. Please use the following link to find out more about enrolment and membership of a status group here at our university.

In addition to the standard practice of initial supervision at Heilbronn University, there is the option of seeking initial supervision at a cooperating university. In this case, the second supervision takes place at HUAS.

The cooperative doctoral process can be carried out with both national and international universities that are authorized to award doctorates. The supervisors at HUAS can help you find one.

For this doctoral model, the university entitled to award doctorates provides information on the formalities required in the PhD regulations of the respective faculty or department.

Gain professional experience in industry and earn a doctorate at the same time: The industrial doctorate makes it possible. The topic is usually specified by the company and the work is compensated accordingly.

The enrollment establishes the membership status within the university.

Doctoral students with less than 50% employment at Heilbronn University are assigned to the group of students. Doctoral students with more than 50% of their workload are assigned to the group of employees.

According to Section 3 (4) of the election regulations, employees with more than 50% of their position who are enrolled at Heilbronn University must choose to belong to either the student group or the employee group when voting for the Senate and the Faculty Council. You will be asked to do so by the election management in the election notice.

Attracting excellent young scientists is often very difficult due to the strong competition from other research institutions and industrial companies. The RaGC, as Heilbronn University's central facility for promoting young talent, gives your institute additional competitive advantages and increases HUAS attractiveness as an employer.

With its comprehensive advisory services, the RaGC supports you in informing and guiding your junior researchers, e.g. on formal steps and funding opportunities.

We are happy to actively support you in the application process - please contact us!

Professors with a proven track record in active research can apply for membership of the Promotionsverband and take on the primary supervision of doctoral projects within its research units:

In addition to membership of the Promotionverband BaWü, UAS professors can obtain the right to award doctorates in two ways: through co-option and association. With the former, you are integrated into a university faculty, with the same rights and obligations in academic self-administration. In the case of association with a university, independent supervision of doctorates without direct faculty membership is made possible through coordination between the university and UAS.

Primary supervisors assume primary responsibility for the academic supervision of the doctoral thesis, while secondary supervisors contribute additional expertise and perspectives and thus provide additional support for the doctoral candidate.

You regulate your relationship with the doctoral candidate in the form of a supervision agreement:

Heilbronn University defines principles for safeguarding good scientific practice and dealing with scientific misconduct in its statutes based on the DFG Code of 2019, which apply to all academic staff.