Doing a doctorate

RESEARCH

Contact the BRS and take advantage of services such as the digital information session “Doktorhut” or individual counselling

Read the respective faculty’s doctoral regulations and check the specific admission requirements:

• Does your degree, usually a Master’s degree or Diplom, correspond to the subject area of your proposed doctoral thesis?
• Does your final degree mark meet the relevant requirements?
• Do you meet the language requirements—at least B2, and preferably C1?

Gaining insight and doing research:
Specialist literature & journals, comparable PhD theses, conference papers, discussions with other PhD candidates, etc.

Which professor with a doctoral degree is a suitable candidate for supervising my doctoral thesis?

• Professorships in the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Studies
• Professorships in the Faculty of Civil Engineering and the Environment
• Professorships in the Faculty of Art and Design
• Professorships in the Faculty of Media

Get in touch and clarify the following in conversation:

What are my personal research interests?

• What formal and personal requirements must I meet to undertake a doctorate? (In addition to my degree and language skills, discuss other aspects such as methodological experience, available resources, etc.)
• What formal steps and deadlines should I be aware of?
• How can I fund my doctoral research?

Prospective doctoral candidates submit an application for “admission to doctoral studies” to the Graduate Committee of the relevant faculty – the doctoral regulations of each faculty list the required faculty-specific documents.

The contact details are as follows:

• Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning
• Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Faculty of Art and Design: PhD study programme | Individual doctorate Dr. phil
• Faculty of Media

Once you have been successfully accepted as a doctoral candidate by the Graduate Committee, you can usually enrol as a “doctoral candidate” via the Bauhaus.CampusPortal of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.

For doctoral candidates at the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, additional enrolment regulations apply (see Section 5 (7) of the Faculty’s Doctoral Regulations, May 2021)

Please direct any enquiries regarding enrolment via the online portal to: studium[at]uni-weimar.de 

Benefits of enrolment:

• University ID and email address, including for easier access to the Moodle learning platform, the BBB meeting portal, software and Nextcloud 
• Thoska Card:
  = Student ID card
  = Library card 
  = Payment card for the cafeteria and sports courses
  = Access card for buildings and rooms (once activated)
  = Copying, printing and scanning 
• Eligibility for the Germany Semester Ticket
• Ticket for museums and theatres in Weimar

Doctoral studies can also be carried out in collaboration with other higher education institutions – this requires AGREEMENTS between the institutions and the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, as well as early consultation. The Bauhaus Research School provides SAMPLE AGREEMENTS.

Cooperation with a UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES

• A cooperation agreement between the higher education institutions is required
• Equal supervision by a professor from the University of Applied Sciences and a professor from the university
• Doctoral procedures at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar; the place of work is often at the University of Applied Sciences

Cooperation with a higher education institution abroad – COTUTELLE:

• An individual cotutelle agreement between the universities is required; the conditions of both doctoral regulations must be met
• Equal supervision by two professors at two universities in different countries
• Generally, a longer period of research at both universities
• A joint, binational doctoral procedure and a joint doctoral degree, usually comprising two certificates that refer to one another
  
  Advisor: Ute Mai ute.mai[at]uni-weimar.de
  or research.school[at]uni-weimar.de 

The Research Training Group “Identity and Heritage” was launched in October 2016 as a joint initiative between the Technical University of Berlin and the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, with a total of 12 doctoral positions across both campuses. The disciplines involved included architecture, architectural theory, history of architecture and urban development, fine arts, heritage conservation, art and architectural history, cultural and media history, landscape architecture, sociology of planning and architecture, spatial planning and spatial research, and urban planning. In the second phase, the interdisciplinary focus of the Research Training Group was expanded to include the fields of archival science and the philosophy of science.

At the end of September 2025, DFG funding for the Research Training Group “Identity and Heritage” came to an end as scheduled. Forty doctoral candidates, 13 third-party-funded associate doctoral candidates and one Ukrainian visiting scholar were given the opportunity to pursue their doctorates in an interdisciplinary environment.

The participating departments continue to address issues of cultural heritage; to facilitate this, the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar has established the International Heritage Centre (IHZ).

The Research Training Group was primarily aimed at doctoral candidates in media studies, cultural studies, film and theatre studies, literary studies, philosophy, sociology, ethnology or one of the related disciplines.

Launched in April 2020, the second cohort commenced in the summer semester of 2023. Since April 2020, 24 doctoral candidates, 13 associate doctoral candidates, 5 postdoctoral researchers and 6 associate postdocs have been conducting research at the Research Training Group. In their doctoral theses, the researchers investigated anthropomedia relations in a wide variety of research fields, such as augmented reality, digital fashion, erotic cinema and quantum imaging. The project was funded by the DFG with a total of around 5.7 million euros. 

The closing event took place in March 2026.

More: www.uni-weimar.de/gkma

From 2002 to 2020, the IPP European Urban Studies was part of the nationwide network of International Doctoral Programmes supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) through the “Doctoral Studies at German Universities (PHD)” programme. Until 2007, the IPP European Urban Studies was the only International Doctoral Programme in Germany dedicated to urban research. Its work focused on topics relating to contemporary concepts such as the “European city”, “compact city”, “social city”, “net city” or the “in-between city”.

The international programme centred on research into urban forms of housing and living, with a particular focus on multidimensional housing policy in the context of contemporary societal challenges, including climate change, social fragmentation, spatial disparities, cultural differentiation, immigration and transformations in the property sector, and their implications for cities across Europe.

Please note: Although the programme is no longer active in its original form, individual doctoral opportunities in the field of “European Urban Studies” are still available. Find out more here.