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Why do your PhD in Germany?
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.
Five 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 universities and other 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 universities, research institutions and companies welcome international researchers and offer excellent opportunities for your doctoral studies. This is demonstrated by the fact that roughly 5,800 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 in Germany. This is because many funding organisations support international PhD students.
The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), for example, supports almost 4,000 international doctoral students a year in Germany with scholarships. Other organisations also offer interesting funding programmes for PhD students, however.
More information
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 highly valued 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 the cost of living is nonetheless quite moderate. 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 an international PhD student says
See what this young researcher has to say about her experience and why she chose to do her PhD in Germany: