Registering the doctorate

The administrative steps to your doctorate

To register the doctorate you need to complete to administrative steps:

  • Step 1: Acceptance of the doctorate by the faculty (basically the admission to the doctorate)
  • Step 2: Enrolment or registration as PhD student in the SIM Portal

Please note that you have to carry out both steps. The acceptance of the doctorate alone is not sufficient!

Step 1: Acceptance of the doctorate by the faculty

The registration of your doctorate within the respective faculty is often referred to as "acceptance onto the PhD list". This registration is mandatory and is done by the Dean's Office of the respective faculties. It can be done as soon as you have found a supervisor for your project. During this registration in the Dean's Office it will be verified whether your previous academic achievements fulfill the requirements for a doctorate and you will receive several documents to fill and hand in, amongs others the so called "Supervision agreement". Please contact your Dean's Office about this. At the end of this process you will receive your proof of acceptance onto the PhD list / a so-called "Dekanatsbescheinigung".

Step 2: Enroling or registering as PhD student

Only after you completed this second step, you will be given the student status at Saarland University. This means that you can get your student card (in the case of enrolment) or your PhD student card (in the case of registration). The registration/enrolment cannot be done without the confirmation that you finished your registration at the Dean's Office (step 1).

Once you have been admitted onto the PhD list / received the "Dekanatsbescheinigung" you have to fill the online-enrolment or online-registration. This enrolment/registration can be done at any time, also during the semester. You will find an overview of the required documents on our websites concerning the enrolment,
We recommend that you have a look at our  SIM Saarland Support Pages in case you have questions about using the SIM Portal.

Online Enrolment / Registration

    Please note: students, who have been enroled at Saarland University before and still possess an active login (HIZID) and now want to begin their doctorate, can request a change of degree programme ("Studiengangswechsel") in the SIM student Portal. In this case it is not necessary to submit a full new enrolment, the change of your current enrolment is sufficient. Please note that in this case it is also required to first obtain the confirmation by the Dean's Office.

    What is the difference between the registration and enrolment as PhD student?

    Changing between the status of being enroled or registered as PhD student is possible each semester by submitting the request to change the enrolment/registration (currently only available in German).

    For the enrolment of your doctorate you need to pay the semester fee. You will then receive a student card, which include the semester ticket and all benefits of the student status, such as the reduced price for food in the Mensa. The enrolment also includes the contribution for the personal accident, theft and public liability insurance cover of Studierendenwerk.

    The registration of the doctorate costs 5€ each semester. It includes the contribution for the personal accident, theft and public liability insurance cover of Studierendenwerk, as well as the PhD student card of Saarland University (optional and free of charge). With this card you can use the services of Saarland University and buy food in the Mensa for the employee discount. Please note that any previously obtained student card will become invalid once a PhD student card is issued.