The guidelines adopted by the Academic Senate on 26 June 2012 are intended to ensure the transparency of doctoral procedures and strengthen the functionality of academic quality assessment. They serve as a recommendation for the revision of the doctoral regulations by the faculties of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
- Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin regards the doctoral period as a phase of independent academic activity.
- The faculties of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin exercise the university right to award doctoral degrees (right to award doctorates). Each faculty regulates its doctoral procedures in doctoral regulations which are based on these guidelines.
- The subject areas in which the faculty awards doctoral degrees are determined by the research areas of its professors and junior professors. The faculties determine the doctoral subjects and possible specialisations in their doctoral regulations. The faculty is also responsible for doctoral procedures that are not supervised by members of the faculty.
- As a rule, admission to doctoral studies requires a Master's degree from a relevant degree programme at a state or state-recognised university. In addition to the Master's degree, the Magister or Diplom examination, the First Scientific State Examination and the First Theological Examination are recognised as qualifications. Admission to a doctorate directly after successfully completing a Bachelor's degree programme (fast track) or after a Master's degree programme that was not preceded by an undergraduate degree programme requires an individual procedure for the assessment of entry requirements, the details of which are regulated in the doctoral degree regulations.
- Admission to the doctoral programme, the opening of the doctoral procedure and the determination of the overall result are carried out by the Faculty Council, which can assign these tasks to the Dean or a doctoral committee.
- To ensure the quality of supervision in doctoral procedures, it is recommended that every doctorate at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin is supervised by two supervisors.
- At the centre of the doctorate is the dissertation, which is an independent examination of a scientific question using appropriate methods. Both doctoral candidates and their supervisors undertake to comply with the rules of good scientific practice[1].
- Doctoral candidates are regularly advised by their supervisors. The content and form of the supervision are regulated in a binding supervision agreement, which is adapted to the requirements of the doctoral programme approximately once a year. The independence of the doctoral candidate's academic work remains unaffected by the supervision agreement.
- Successful academic work requires subject-specific and methodological qualifications that generally go beyond the content of a Master's programme and may only become necessary in the course of the doctorate. The content, scope and sequence of courses to be attended can be regulated in the supervision agreement. The agreement may also cover integration into and exchange with the national and international research community.
- Participation in conferences and other events is listed in a supplement, which can be attached to the certificate at the doctoral candidate's request. If the successful attendance of certain events was made a condition of admission to the doctorate, these attendances are part of the doctoral procedure.
- If publications that have been published or submitted for publication are used as written dissertation work, the provisions of the doctoral degree regulations ensure that the dissertation is recognisable as a substantially independent achievement that goes beyond the work that has already been published or submitted for publication. In particular, it must be regulated how, in the case of several authors, the contribution of the doctoral candidate(s) is to be proven.
- In addition to the written form, the dissertation is also submitted in electronic form. This is to ensure that the thesis can be checked for unauthorised copying of text from others or incorrect citations should the need arise.
- The quality of the doctoral procedure includes an independent assessment of the dissertation according to the quality standards valid in the respective academic community. The dissertation is therefore assessed by at least two reviewers. The reviews are prepared independently of each other. It is strongly recommended that at least one review be prepared by a university lecturer outside Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Before appointing the reviewers, possible reasons for bias against the doctoral candidate must be enquired about and assessed in order to be able to involve other persons in the review process in good time if necessary; this regulation does not apply to reviewers who have supervised the dissertation.
- Part of the doctoral procedure is a public defence. This gives the doctoral candidate the opportunity to demonstrate their academic ability in a presentation and academic discussion; the doctoral candidate must be granted access to the reviews at least 14 days before the defence. The discussion should relate to the dissertation and the presentation and may require knowledge of the context of the topic being worked on.
- The Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin awards the grades "summa cum laude", "magna cum laude", "cum laude", "rite" and "non sufficit" in the context of doctoral procedures. When determining the overall grade, the predicates of the reviews are considered as individual achievements, as are the presentation and the discussion during the defence. The overall grade of "summa cum laude" is only awarded if all individual achievements have been assessed as "summa cum laude" and at least three expert opinions on the written doctoral thesis have been submitted. The overall grade "non sufficit" (fail) is awarded if the majority of the individual grades are lower than "rite". The grading scale is formally communicated to all parties involved in the procedure, in particular the reviewers, when the procedure is initiated.