Doctoral studies

• a master's degree at a university with a grade point average of 2.5 or better, and
• at least 300 ECTS (the University of Hamburg Business School's doctoral committee can decide on exceptions); and
• you confirm that you have not submitted your dissertation topic for a doctorate elsewhere.
• You confirm that you will comply with the Bylaws for Safeguarding Good Scientific Practice and Avoiding Scientific Misconduct at Universität Hamburg [PDF]. 
• Your language level in German or English is C1 or above. Candidates with a native language that is neither German nor English should attach proof of language proficiency (certificate from a recognized language test).

Important note: You must be admitted by the Business School, before you can enrol at University of Hamburg!

 You may apply for a doctorate at any time of the year. Please apply for admission within a maximum of three months after having started your doctoral studies. The semester contribution must be paid in full for each full or part semester at the University of Hamburg Business School.

1. You are free to choose and are responsible for finding two university professors to supervise your doctoral project, at least one of whom teaches at the University of Hamburg Business School. Both supervisors and you sign (scanned signatures) the Consent to Supervision.
2. In DOCATA (the doctoral program management website) you complete the Application for Admission for the University of Hamburg Business School, you state "membership in the Graduate School" at University of Hamburg Business School.
   
3. You attach to the Application form in DOCATA all the documents listed below, as one, combined PDF:
   
   1. the Consent to Supervision (see point 1.),
   2. an up-to-date, signed CV,
   3. your master’s degree certificate, and
   4. a language certificate, if applicable;
4. you upload the application and all required attachments in DOCATA.

The Doctoral Committee reviews your application, and decides whether or not to admit you as doctoral student. In DOCATA, you will receive email notification on the Committee’s decision, either:

1. that you are admitted to University of Hamburg Business School as doctoral student,
2. that you are admitted to the University of Hamburg Business School as doctoral student UNDER PRE-CONDITIONS, or
3. that your application for admission has been rejected.

If you are accepted (a or b), you will receive confirmation in DOCATA. If you are not already a member of Universität Hamburg, this confirmation will include a so-called B-Code (“B-Kennung”, e.g. BAY2222). This is important, as it is your personal login number for all University applications.

According to § 3, 5, certain conditions may enable admission to a “fast track” doctorate. Information thereto might be found on HRA website.

Important notice: Admission to doctoral studies and enrolment at University of Hamburg are two different and separate processes. Under Hamburg’s Higher Education Act (Hamburger Hochschulgesetz §§ 70 Abs. 5), you are required to enrol at the University to complete a doctorate.

After admission to the University of Hamburg Business School as doctoral student has been confirmed, you need to enrol at the Campus Center (via STiNE). For further rules for application, please consult the website of the Campus Center.

The enrolment has to last from the starting date of your admission throughout the semester in which the disputation takes place.

The following apply:

• The doctoral degree regulations dated 10 April 2024, and
• the academic regulations for the structured doctoral degree program Research in Business Administration from 10 July [PDF], and
• the latest Bylaws for Safeguarding Good Scientific Practice and Avoiding Scientific Misconduct at Universität Hamburg [PDF].

About one year after having started your doctorate, you submit an exposé to your supervisors and discuss it. You will hold regular research meetings with your supervisors and prepare internal interim reports. In case you were admitted to doctoral studies under pre-conditions, you fulfil them prior to submitting your thesis.

You are responsible for keeping your personal data in DOCATA up-to-date, on top of separate notifications to the personnel department or Campus Center:

• Changes in your contact details or name
• Other changes, e.g. co-operative programs or faculty
• Interruptions in doctorate study time
• The three longest stays abroad (research stays or conferences)
• Termination of your doctoral studies prior to completion (i.e., withdrawal from the program)
• Parental leave, vacation, etc...

During your doctoral studies you earn credit points. To have courses acknowledged, you need to provide the following information:  

• Proof of participation
• Duration of the course (hours/days)
• Agenda/module description
• The study achievement(s) completed, e.g. own presentation, term paper, seminar paper, written examination.
  • Certificates that confirm "successful participation" without any further specification of the evaluation criteria cannot be accepted.
  • If a form of study achievement is optional, the certificates of attendance must state the criteria for successfully completing the course.

When finishing your doctoral studies, you upload the relevant word document (Transcript of Records (ToR) and/or a form for verification of credit points (CP) in accordance with the doctoral degree regulations) and accompanying documentation in copy (the latter combined in a SINGLE pdf-document, in chronological order) to bwl.promotion"AT"uni-hamburg.de (see also General information of Doctoral courses).

The acknowledgement for credits of courses at our Faculty can be found under Recognizing credits according to doctoral degree regulations of 2024 [PDF]. If you would like to have credits acknowledged for teaching, please see Recognizing credits (teaching) in doctoral degree regulations of 2024 [PDF].

We will then check the documents you have handed in/uploaded. Where relevant, we may request further necessary documents. You will then receive confirmation on the number of credit points you have officially completed.

Together with your supervisors, you develop a procedure for data management. Your first supervisor and you sign a separate agreement on your data management system, which you upload in DOCATA when submitting your thesis.

As soon as you have:

1. filled in your three longest stays abroad in DOCATA,
2. checked your personal data in DOCATA for correctness,
3. received confirmation of your study achievements (credit points, see IV. Doctoral studies), and
4. have the signed declaration on the management of your research data,

then: Please open/start the examination process in DOCATA and hand in the following documentation:

1. Your thesis: please send/deposit one print copy with original signature to the administration office for doctoral studies to: Admin. Office for Doctoral Studies, Moorweidenstr. 18, R. 3007, 20148 Hamburg
2. You declare that the print copy of your thesis corresponds fully to the pdf-version and to all further print copies: Template of declaration (in English or German).
3. You upload the pdf of your dissertation in DOCATA; it consists of
   1. title page (please use template),
   2. synopsis,
   3. listing of your work contributions in the papers,
   4. summary in English and German
   5. affidavit (using template).
4. Proposal for the Examination Commission (in English or German): as pdf with scanned signatures. Please note that the members of the examination commission must be from University of Hamburg and that at least one must be from a different area of specialization (Schwerpunkt). In case of a cumulative dissertation, a co-author cannot act as chairperson.
5. Your declaration on the management of your research data; dated and signed (scanned signatures) by you and your first supervisor, as pdf.

The reviewers may take up to three months to review your dissertation. If, contrary to expectations, one or both reviewers decide not to grade your dissertation, it will be returned to you with a deadline for revision. If both reviewers grade your dissertation with “summa cum laude (with distinction)” or the reviews differ in their grades, the doctoral committee appoints a third-party reviewer.

As soon as all expert reports are on-hand, the dissertation and reports are available for review for a two-week period. If any requirements are formulated during the review period, we will let you know. You will have to fulfil all conditions (if any), and the examination commission has to confirm fulfilment before the process can continue to the disputation.

At the end of the review period, we will inform you on the grading of your dissertation, and invite you to the disputation. The examination commission agrees upon this date among their members and with you. You confirm receipt of the invitation to the Office for Doctoral Studies. The chair or the doctoral student is responsible for reserving the room for the disputation.

You orally defend your research project(s).

The Examination Commission

• assigns the grade for the disputation and the overall grade,
• approves the thesis for publication, and
• issues an interim certificate to you, stating in advance the grades and your examination board. The interim certificate does not yet qualify you to use the title of “Dr. rer. oec.”.

The doctoral certificate is printed and sent to be signed off.

You publish your dissertation within one year at the State and University Library (SUB) or via a publishing house (see our information on the publication of dissertations as part of the doctoral procedure). Proof of publication is a pre-requisite for receiving the doctoral certificate. Only after having been issued with the certificate is one legally allowed to use the title “Dr. rer. oec.”.

Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg (SUB)
Hochschulschriftenbearbeitung
Von-Melle-Park 3
20146 Hamburg.

Please direct all inquiries regarding publication of your thesis by e-mail to: diss"AT"sub.uni-hamburg.de.

You acknowledge receipt of the certificate and confirm that the content of the published dissertation fully corresponds to the version reviewed.

• Doctoral Degree Program students must complete at least 32 CP for the "Certificate of Research in Business Administration" (see study program regulations of the Graduate School of Business Administration/GSBA).
• Doctoral Degree Program students must complete at least 12 credit points (CP) in doctoral courses.

In order for doctoral courses to be credited, students must submit documentation that includes the following information:

• Proof of participation
• The duration of the course (hours/days)
• The agenda/module description
• The study achievement(s) completed, e.g. own presentation, term paper, seminar paper, written examination.

Certificates that confirm "successful participation" without any further specification of the evaluation criteria cannot be accepted.

If a form of study achievement is optional, the certificates of attendance must state the criteria for passing the course.

The information on recognition of credit points [PDF] will guide you on the evaluation of the courses according to the Doctoral Regulations 2024 for the University of Hamburg Business School.

The Graduate School Doctoral Degree Program is divided into three elective courses:

A.   Methodology courses.

For the "Certificate of Research in Business Administration", doctoral students must complete at least 10 CP (at least 2 of the 6 courses offered). All courses are 5 CP (2 credit hours).

B.   Specialzation courses 

For the "Certificate of Research in Business Administration", doctoral students must complete at least 10 CP (4 credit hours).

Seminars/workshops on content, methods, software, theories (general or subject-specific). Examples can be found below under Other doctoral courses at the UHH. 

C.   Supplementary courses

For the "Certificate of Research in Business Administration", doctoral students must complete at least 12 CP (2 credits awarded per course day).

Seminars/workshops from the UHH PhD qualification program ("Academic Writing", "Project Management", etc.) or courses offered by HRA and at least one lecture at conferences/colloquia, etc. 

Courses abroad

• IRWS International Research Workshop Methods for Ph.D. Students
• Universtität St. Gallen: GSERM - Summer School in Empirical Research Methods: Please register directly with GSERM St. Gallen for summer term 2025; 30 % rebate on course fee subject to at least 5 participants from our Business School. Please inform nina.paasche"AT"uni-hamburg.de in case you registered.
• University of Ljubljana: GSERM Ljubljana
• Essex Summer School
• University of Michigan: Summer Program in Quantitative Methods of Social Research
• DART – Doctoral Program in Accounting, Reporting and Taxation

 Further doctoral programs

• VHB Doktorandenprogramm
• Courses within the PhD Network

Research data is, for example, raw data and its different processing stages; simulation data; observation data; data from interviews; software; models; programming codes.

The preparation, storing and publishing of research data. Reasons therefore are – among others – the Statutes to ensure good scientific practice and avoid scientific misconduct at the University of Hamburg or application for third-party funding.

Guiding principle: unless there are legal reasons, you should document in written all sources, raw data and history of the research data processed as well as the evaluation files you used in your dissertation. They should be stored in order to enable replication of the outcome by a third party. This has become particularly important with the use of generative artificial intelligence in the field of research.

Data set description

•  From which source did you receive the data?
• In which analyses did you use the relevant data in your dissertation?
• Which is the data structure (e.g. units, codes…)?
• Which method of data recruitment or measurement did you use?
• Is it raw data or processed data?
  • In case of processed data: which processing steps did you follow and which program did you use for this?
  • Was the data quality maintained?

Own programming codes

• Which programming codes refer to which analyses?
• How did you ensure replicable use by a third party (e.g. comments in the programming code)?

Where and how do you store and save the data?

a) Place of data storage:

•  Especially during the study period: UHH network drives - procedure in case you end your work prematurely?
• Rather at the end of the study period: Repository for research data management (terms of use) at UHH? There is a trial version.

  * long-term storage (S3 storage) for data that can no longer be changed (versioning possible); for at least ten years

  * free of charge and accessible for UHH employees; login via “B-ID” (= your personal B-ident B+4-digit number and your password), access also possible via external e-mail

  * independent file format; each entry receives an individual DOI (Digital Object Identifier)

  * upload up to 50 GB/data set

  * one person “owning” the data (applicant) is inscribed (closed access)

  * extended access: (restricted access enables download after owner’s consent, embargoed access and closed access prevent third-party access, open access offers any person to access data)

  * any person even without registration may search for metadata

• Specific repositories for specialized research data?

b) Type of storage:

• Does the type of data format allow third parties to re-use the data (for a long term)?
• Did you regulate the access to (sensitive) data (see above)?
• Did you save programming codes resp. data sets together with long-term saving formats used in the program (e.g. .txt, .csv …)?
• Which directory and names did you use for files and folders?

Please note: According to the Statutes to ensure good scientific practice and avoid scientific misconduct at the University of Hamburg [PDF], you must store primary data, which you collected for your dissertation work for ten years on durable and secure data media within the institution where the data was created, unless special rules provide for an even longer storage. We recommend using the repository for research data at UHH. The storage period starts when you hand in your dissertation at the office for doctoral studies. The data blocks need to be accompanied by a descriptive file (see above section “data set description”).

Subsequent use by a third party?

• Is the re-use of the available data by a third part subject to any consent?
• How do you enable a third party to use the data (e.g. repository of research data at UHH)?
• Are Creative Commons Licences an option?

• The Center for Sustainable Research Data Management at UHH offers open consultation hours and single sessions to clarify unanswered questions
• The WiSo/BWL library offers information on research, research data and statistics.
• Requirements of journals regarding data safety management and replicability of data (dated ....)
• Requirements of DFG specified by the Board of Economics and Research data management in economics (in German only). DFG offers a checklist.