Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

 

Please find general information for doctoral candidates at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU Berlin) on our Doctoral Candidates Portal.

 

Please contact the PhD office of the faculty at which you would like to do your doctorate. Notice that there are no fixed deadlines for applying as a doctoral candidate. You get all necessary information on the application procedure directly there. Please find corresponding contact details on the websites of the faculties.

Please submit your application for admission exclusively to the PhD office at the faculty of your choice. Your application must contain all specified documents. Please note, if you have a non German university degree, your documents will be checked for equivalence with the German education system before the application procedure. Any coordination that may be necessary for this process is carried out between the faculty’s PhD office and the department for student services internally. We kindly ask you, do not send any documents to the enrollment office for doctoral studies before you received your admission by the faculty of your choice.

Please submit the enrollment form for PhD studies [PDF] and all the required documents as soon as possible, but no later than four weeks after you received the letter of admission from your faculty. If you are employed at HU and prefer to be only registered, please choose the registration-form for a doctorate [PDF]. Please send the filled out and signed form with all required documents to the following address

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Referat Studierendenservice
Unter den Linden 6
10099 Berlin

or drop them into the mailbox at the Student Service Center (SSC) in the main building of  Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10117 Berlin (Opening hours: Mon - Fri, 8 a.m. - 7 p.m.).

To keep the four-week deadline for enrollment/registration it is sufficient to submit the documents during this period to the enrollment office for PhD students.

Enrollment forms submitted digitally (e.g. as e-mail attachments) cannot be accepted for your enrollment.

 

You can only enroll for PhD studies after you have received your formal admission in a doctoral-study-program from the PhD office/PhD board of your faculty.

Enrolled doctoral candidates do have a student status and receive a student card (Campus-Card) but cannot receive the semester ticket for public transport. Enrolled PhD students have to pay the semester fees. Enrollment as a doctoral candidate is not contingent upon employment as a staff member at the HU Berlin.

However, if you are employed at HU, you have two options:

Either you enroll or you register for PhD studies. Registration is only possible as long as you are an employee/staff member at the HU Berlin. In case of registration, no fees or contributions have to be paid. But you do not have a status of a student at the HU Berlin and you are excluded from using the discounted semester ticket.

 

Differences between enrollment and registration for PhD studies

	Enrollment for PhD studies (possible with or without employment contract at the HU Berlin)	Registration for PhD studies (possible only during the employment at the HU Berlin)
Semester fee	yes	no
Campus Card	yes	not possible/excluded
Semester ticket	not possible/excluded	not possible/excluded
HU student account	yes	not possible/excluded

 

 

Please enroll for PhD studies within four weeks after receiving the letter of admission from your faculty and submit the following documents:

- the completed and signed enrollment form [PDF] incl. details on your educational biography,

- a simple copy of your admission letter from the PhD board,

- the payment confirmation of the semester fee (e.g. a simple copy of the bank transfer). You will find detailed information about the amount of semester fee which has to be paid for your enrollment below under "How much semester fee do I have to pay to be enrolled for PhD studies?".

- a simple copy of the de-registration certificate from your last German university (does not apply if you have never been enrolled at a university in Germany),

- a simple copy of your university entrance qualification (in most cases the secondary school certificate and/or university entrance examination),

- simple copies of your previous university degree certificates (German and/or foreign certificates),

- proof of a scholarship (if applicable).

 

Enrollment for the winter semester 2023/24

Doctoral students have the opportunity to purchase the semester ticket for the months of February and March 2024 when enrolling for the winter semester 2023/24.

Please see this overview for the amount to be transferred for your enrollment:

	with semester ticket	without semester ticket
enrollment beginning on 01.02.2024	301.03 €   (semester fee for the WiSe2023/24 of 186.44 € , incl. the semester ticket for the months February and March 2024 + semester fee for the SoSe 2024 of 114.59 € without semester ticket)	228.43 €   (semester fee for the WiSe2023/24 of 113.84 € + semester fee for the SoSe 2024 of 114.59 €)
enrollment beginning on 01.03.2024	268.73 €   (semester fee for the WiSe2023/24 of 154.14 €, incl. the semester ticket for the months February and March 2024 + semester fee for the SoSe 2024 of 114.59 € without semester ticket)	228.43 €   (semester fee for the WiSe2023/24 of 113.84 € + semester fee for the SoSe 2024 of 114.59 €)

Enrollment for the summer semester 2024 (01.04.2024 – 30.09.2024)

Starting from the summer semester of 2024, PhD students are not entitled to a semester ticket and are excluded from using the Germany semester ticket.

Please transfer the semester fee of €114.59 for your enrollment in the summer semester 2024.

When enrolling from the beginning of the re-registration period for the winter semester 2024/25 (in the months of June, July, August and September 2024), we ask you to transfer the semester fee for the winter semester 2024/25 as well.

Exemption from the enrollment fee (currently €50)

PhD students who receive a scholarship (e.g. from the DAAD) as part of funding programs that are financed exclusively or predominantly from public funds from the federal or state governments and who submit a proof of this for enrollment can be exempted from the fee for enrollment and re-registration, currently 50 € per semester, in accordance with Section 2 Paragraph 7 of the BerlHG (§ 2 Abs. 7 BerlHG).

 

Please find detailed information about the composition of semester fees and contributions here:

https://hu.berlin/rueckmeldung

 

Bank account details
Recipient:	Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
IBAN:	DE64 1001 0010 0651 8231 04
SWIFT (BIC):	PBNKDEFF (PBNKDEFFXXX)
Bank:	Postbank Berlin
Reference:	[surname], [given name], Promotion
Please note that only this bank account can be used for enrollment and re-registration. Please note that additional fees may apply for transfers outside of Germany. You should ask your bank about these and include them in the transfer.

 

If you are employed at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and have chosen to register as a PhD student, please submit the following documents within four weeks after receiving the letter of admission from your faculty:

- the completed and signed application registration-form for PhD studies incl. details on your educational biography [PDF],

- a simple copy of your admission letter from the PhD board,

- a proof of employment at HU which contains the begin-date and the end-date of your employment (e.g. a copy of your employment contract),

- a simple copy of the de-registration certificate from your last German university (does not apply if you have never been enrolled at a university in Germany),

- a simple copy of your university entrance qualification (in most cases the secondary school certificate and/or university entrance examination),

- simple copies of your previous university degree certificates (either German and/or foreign certificates).

Please note that the enrollment office will not send you a confirmation that your documents have been received. The application deadline is met if your documents for enrollment or registration have reached the enrollment office within one month after your admission for PhD studies.

After we have received your documents, we will check them carefully. If any documents are missing, you will be informed by email or via mail and we will give you a deadline for submitting the missing evidence.

If you submitted all the required documents in full, you will receive a confirmation of completed enrollment/registration by e-mail. In addition, we will provide you with further information (in case of enrollment: e.g. how to create the Campus Card (student ID) or to activate the student HU account).

 

Please note that the processing of your application for enrollment or registration for PhD studies usually takes at least two weeks after the enrollment office has received all the required documents. Before the start of the semester or shortly after the semester start, there may be longer processing times.

 

Yes, re-registration for the next semester is mandatory. In order to retain your status as a doctoral student and to be able to complete your PhD studies, you must re-register within the re-registration period. Please note the information on the main deadlines for re-registration in your AGNES account and on our website for re-registration.

 

If you have appropriate reasons, you can apply for a leave of absence as a PhD student by using our application form [PDF]. For further information please visit our website.

However, the leave of absence has no influence on the standard processing time of your doctoral studies and your processing time will not be automatically extended for the duration of your leave of absence.

 

Please complete the extension form ("Bescheinigung über die Verlängerung der Regelbearbeitungszeit der Promotion" [PDF]) and have it signed by your PhD supervisor. Then send the signed form to the PhD office of your faculty. Please note that the PhD office may need additional documents from you. Contact the office for more information and procedure details.

If your request has been approved by the faculty’s PhD board, the PhD office will forward the signed form to the enrollment office for doctoral studies.

 

As a registration for PhD studies is only possible for the duration of your employment at the HU Berlin, you have to enroll as a PhD student after your employment relationship has expired. Please submit the application form for enrollment for PhD studies to the enrollment office. In addition, please submit a proof of payment of the semester fee, a proof of health insurance and an informal letter in which you inform us that you are currently registered for doctoral studies.

 

The amount of the semester fee depends on two factors:

Whether you want to use the semester ticket and on what date you enroll for PhD studies.

If you want to use the semester ticket and enroll within the first semester month (April or October), the full semester fee including the semester ticket fee must be paid.

If you enroll after the first month of the semester, the semester ticket fee only has to be paid proportionally from the month of enrollment.

If you opt out the semester ticket, the semester fee for the current semester is constant regardless of the month of enrollment.

If you enroll in the last three semester months (July-September or January-March), we ask you to transfer the re-registration fee for the following semester in addition to the semester fee for the matriculation semester.

 

You do not need to be exempt from the semester ticket. Doctoral students have no entitlement and are excluded from using the semester ticket.

 

Please try to re-activate your HU account for students via our Computer and Media Service (CMS) to solve this issue. If this is not possible, please contact the enrollment office for generating a new PIN letter for re-activating your HU account for students.

Please note that a new PIN can only provided via a PIN letter send to you by mail.

 

If you do not re-register for the upcoming semester, .e.g. not paying the required semester fee, you will be automatically de-registered (“Exmatrikulation”). If you would like to be de-registered before the end of the semester, please submit the application for de-registration [PDF] to the enrollment office for doctoral studies.

 

Please contact the PhD office of your faculty and clarify whether the enrollment is necessary to defend your thesis and proceed accordingly. If the regular processing time for your doctorate has expired, and you have submitted your thesis and you need to be enrolled in the upcoming semester, ask the PhD office to inform the enrollment office about this. After the enrollment office has received the confirmation from the PhD office and your payment of the semester fee has been received, we will re-register you.