Germany is a good place to do a PhD: the country’s universities and research institutions enjoy an outstanding reputation and offer a wide range of high quality programmes.
5 reasons to do your PhD in Germany
As a nation with a long cultural and scientific tradition, Germany offers exceptional infrastructure for your PhD project: for example,
- the large choice of higher education institutions that have the right to award doctorates,
- the well-equipped non-university research organisations, such as the institutes or centres of the Helmholtz Association, Leibniz Association, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and Max-Planck-Gesellschaft,
- and German companies, which are among the most actively engaged in research in Europe.
Moreover, German universities are among the best in the world and the German doctorate enjoys an outstanding reputation in all disciplines.
Germany’s research institutions, universities and companies welcome international researchers and offer excellent opportunities for your doctoral studies. This is demonstrated by the fact that some 5,200 international graduates complete their doctorates in Germany every year. And there is something else you ought to know: as a rule, PhD students can write their doctoral thesis in English.
Do you have a good or very good university degree and a promising doctoral thesis project? Then you have good prospects of receiving a scholarship or a funded doctoral position. This is because many funding organisations support international PhD students.
The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), for example, supports roughly 5,000 international doctoral students a year in Germany with scholarships. But other organisations also offer interesting funding programmes for PhD students.
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If you come to Germany, you will experience the benefits of living in one of the world’s safest and freest countries. The freedom of the arts, sciences and research is considered a precious good and is protected by the constitution.
As a PhD student you can also easily travel to other European Union countries to conduct research or study.
And best of all: Germany may have a very high standard of living, but nevertheless its living costs are relatively low. This especially includes the good news that studying for a doctorate at a public university in Germany is free of charge.
The prospects of also being able to use Germany’s many cultural offerings are therefore excellent. After all, the country has a unique cultural landscape with an impressive music and theatre scene.
What international PhD students say
See what young researchers have to say about their experience and why they chose to do their PhD in Germany:
"So many doors have already opened for me just by being here"
Elizabeth Yuu from the USA is happy about her decision to complete her PhD in Germany. She is a PhD student of biomedicine at the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin. In our video, she explains why she chose to do her PhD in Germany and why it was a logical decision for her
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“Doing a PhD in Germany can be a rich experience”
Tourmaline is a mineral that comes in countless colours, which is just one of the reasons why Eleanor Berryman finds it so fascinating. A doctoral student, she is focusing in her PhD on how this mineral can help us study the Earth’s geological history. In our interview, she explains exactly what she is researching and why she chose to do her doctorate in Germany.
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"Germany has one of the best education systems in the world."
Fruit flies are not particularly loved by most people. They may be able to protect us from disease, however. Dr Hany Dweck from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology explains in our interview why the fruit fly’s sense of smell could prove beneficial to humans.
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