Enrolment office for doctoral candidates

If you wish to pursue a doctorate, please contact the doctoral office of the faculty where you would like to study directly. Please note that there are no fixed deadlines for applications for admission to doctoral programmes and that applications can be submitted at any time during the semester. Further information can be found in our overview of doctoral programmes.

Please submit your application for admission exclusively to the relevant doctoral office of the faculty. It should be submitted with all the documents listed. If you have a foreign university entrance qualification, your degrees or certificates will be checked for equivalence with the German education system before admission. This is done exclusively internally between the doctoral office of the faculty and the Student Services Department. We therefore ask you not to send any documents to the enrolment office for doctoral candidates before you have been admitted to a faculty.

1. Please submit your application for enrolment in a doctoral programme or, if you are employed at HU, your application for registration in a doctoral programme with all the necessary documents to the Enrolment Office as soon as possible, but no later than four weeks after admission. The four-week deadline for enrolment/registration after receiving admission is considered to have been met if the application is received by the Enrolment Office within this period.
2. Send your documents either by post or drop them in the letterbox of the Student Service Centre in the main building of Humboldt University in Berlin. Applications submitted digitally cannot be used for enrolment or registration.

You can apply for enrolment in a doctoral programme after you have received admission from the dean's office/doctoral committee of your faculty. 

Enrolled doctoral candidates receive student status, a HU student account and have the option of creating a campus card and activating a semester ticket. The semester fee must be paid in order to enrol.

Enrolment for a doctoral programme is possible even if you are not employed by HU. If you are employed by HU, you have two options: you can enrol or register for the doctoral programme for the maximum duration of your employment. If you register, you will not receive student status or a HU student account, and you will not be able to obtain a campus card. There are no fees for registration.

If you have been admitted to the doctoral programme, please submit your application for enrolment within four weeks of receiving your admission letter and include the following documents:

1. Application for enrolment in a doctoral programme, including details of your educational background
2. A simple copy of the letter of admission from the Dean's Office/Doctoral Committee
3. Proof of payment of the semester fee (information on the amount of the semester fee and the bank details required for the transfer can be found below under "What semester fee do I have to transfer for my enrolment in a doctoral programme?")
4. A simple copy of your certificate of exmatriculation from the last German university you attended (not applicable if you have never been enrolled at a university in Germany)
5. 1. University entrance qualification (usually Abitur) as a simple copy
6. Simple copy of previous university degree certificates (domestic and/or foreign)
7. Proof of scholarship (if applicable)

Enrolment for the winter semester 2025/26 (1 October 2025–31 March 2026)

Under the new Germany Semester Ticket agreement negotiated between the student body of Humboldt University of Berlin, represented by the Referent_innenrat (statutory AStA), and the transport companies, the purchase of the Germany Semester Ticket is mandatory for doctoral students in the winter semester 2025/26 and summer semester 2026.

Further information on the Germany Semester Ticket can be found on this website.

Please refer to this overview for the amount to be transferred for your enrolment:

* The re-registration period for the 2026 summer semester begins on 1 December 2025. The main re-registration period ends on 15 February 2026. Doctoral students who apply for enrolment in a doctoral programme at the beginning of the re-registration period are requested to transfer the re-registration fee for the following semester together with the semester fee for enrolment.

Exemption from the enrolment fee (currently €50)

Foreign doctoral students who receive a scholarship (e.g. from the DAAD) as part of funding programmes that are financed exclusively or predominantly from public funds from the federal or state governments and who submit proof of this for enrolment can be exempted from the enrolment and re-registration fee, currently €50 per semester.

Information on the composition of semester fees and contributions can be found on the HU re-registration website.

If you are employed at Humboldt University in Berlin and do not wish to enrol, you must register for the doctoral programme within four weeks of receiving your admission. To register, please submit the following documents:

1. Application for registration for doctoral studies, including details of your educational background
2. A simple copy of the letter of admission from the Dean's Office/Doctoral Committee
3. Proof of employment at HU, showing the start and end dates of your employment (e.g. a copy of your employment contract)
4. A simple copy of your certificate of exmatriculation from the last German university you attended (not required if you have never been enrolled at a university in Germany)
5. 1. University entrance qualification (usually Abitur) as a simple copy
6. Previous university degree certificates in simple copy (domestic and/or foreign)

Please note that the Admissions Office does not send confirmation of receipt of your documents. The application deadline is deemed to have been met if your documents for enrolment or registration have reached the Admissions Office within one month of your admission to the doctoral programme. Once your application has been received by the Enrolment Office, your documents will be carefully checked. If any documents are missing, we will notify you by email or post and, if necessary, give you a deadline for submitting the missing documents.
Once your documents have been received in full, you will be informed of your enrolment/registration by email. You will also receive information on any further steps you need to take (when enrolling as a doctoral student: e.g. to create your campus card (student ID) or activate your HU student account).

Please note that processing your application for enrolment or registration for a doctoral programme usually takes at least two weeks after receipt of your complete documents. At the beginning of the semester, processing times may be longer.

Yes, re-registration for the next semester is necessary in order to maintain your status as a doctoral student and complete your doctoral project. To do so, you must transfer the required semester fee within the re-registration period. Please note the information on the main deadlines for re-registration in your HU student account and on the Re-registration page.

If there are valid reasons, you can also apply for a leave of absence while you are enrolled in a doctoral programme. For more information on leaves of absence, please refer to our page on sabbatical semesters.

Please note, however, that a leave of absence has no influence on the standard processing time for a doctoral degree and that the standard processing time for a doctoral degree is not automatically extended by a leave of absence.

Please complete the "Certificate of Extension of the Standard Processing Time for Doctoral Studies" and have it signed by your supervisor. Then submit the form to the relevant doctoral office at your faculty. Please note that additional documents may need to be submitted to the doctoral office in order for a decision to be made regarding the extension of your standard processing time. Please contact your doctoral office directly for information on the procedure.

Once the extension of your standard processing time for your doctorate has been approved by the faculty's doctoral committee, the doctoral office will forward the signed form to the enrolment office.

As registration for a doctoral programme is only possible for the duration of your employment at HU, you must enrol after your employment has ended. Please submit your application for enrolment in a doctoral programme to the Enrolment Office. In addition, please submit proof of payment of the semester fee and an informal letter informing us that you are currently registered for a doctoral programme.

The amount of the semester fee depends on the date on which you apply for enrolment in the doctoral programme. If you apply for enrolment after the end of the first month of the semester, the semester ticket fee only has to be paid pro rata from the month of enrolment. If you enrol in the last three months of the semester (July–September and January–March), we ask you to transfer the re-registration fee for the following semester in addition to the semester fee for the enrolment semester.

Please try to restore your HU student account via the Computer and Media Service (CMS) of HU Berlin. To do so, you will need the PIN you received immediately after your enrolment. If this is not possible or you no longer have your PIN letter, please contact the Enrolment Office to have a new PIN letter issued.

Please note that a PIN can only be issued by post in a specially created PIN letter.

If you do not re-register for the coming semester (e.g. by transferring the required semester fee), you will be automatically de-registered. If you wish to be de-registered before the end of the semester, please submit your application for de-registration to the Enrolment Office for Doctoral Students.

Please check with your faculty's doctoral office to find out whether enrolment is necessary for the defence of your thesis and proceed accordingly. If the standard processing time for your doctorate is coming to an end, you have submitted your thesis and enrolment is necessary for the coming semester, please ask the doctoral office to informally confirm this to the enrolment office. Upon receipt of such confirmation from the doctoral office and payment of the semester fee, we will re-enrol you.