In order to start a doctorate with us, you must have already found a doctoral topic and a supervisor (doctoral supervisor or doctoral supervisor) for your thesis and fulfill one of the following requirements:

• If you are studying at RUB, you can start a doctorate after completing the 1st state medical examination.
• If you are studying at another university, you can only start your doctorate after completing your studies and receiving your license to practice medicine.

Before submitting your application, find a doctoral supervisor (first supervisor). To do this, contact the respective departments that interest you.

The first supervisor can be any habilitated member of the RUB Faculty of Medicine. You can also register a second supervisor. This supervisor must have at least a doctorate and be a member or affiliate of a university (also outside RUB).

You and your supervisor will agree on a suitable doctoral topic that interests you and is suitable for an independent scientific thesis. 

If you meet the requirements and have a supervisor and a topic, you must register your thesis. To do this, prepare the “Application for admission as a doctoral candidate” (see download area) and compile the necessary additional documents. Please refer to our “Information sheet for admission to doctoral studies” and our “Application checklist”.

Please send the application to the doctoral office by e-mail and in paper form. Please make sure that your application is complete - incomplete applications cannot be considered.

After a positive review of your application, you will receive provisional acceptance as a doctoral candidate, which you should use to enrol as a doctoral student and register with the RUB Research School. If you provide us with proof of both, you will receive final acceptance

During the doctoral phase, you will attend qualification events and acquire credit points. Please refer to the information sheet on qualification courses and the acquisition of credit points. When you submit your dissertation, you must provide proof of a total of 8 CP - corresponding to 5 CP - by submitting the signed certificate.

The most important step is, of course, writing your dissertation. Please refer to the information sheet on writing your dissertation and consult your first supervisor regularly.

Once your dissertation has been completed, prepare the “Application for admission to the doctoral procedure”, which you can find in the download area, and compile the required documents. Please refer to our information sheet on submitting the dissertation and contact our doctoral office if you have any questions. Three bound copies of your dissertation and a digital version are required. Please send us the latter by e-mail together with a digital version of your application. Please send us all other documents by post or submit them in person during office hours.

There is no deadline for submitting your thesis. Please note, however, that you can only submit your dissertation one year after receiving “final acceptance”. 

The doctoral procedure usually takes about six months. However, this period may be extended if, for example, a correction of your dissertation (monita) is requested or a third opinion is required in the event of major grade discrepancies.

Once the assessment has been completed, you will receive an invitation to the oral defense at least three weeks before your examination date. Examinations only take place during the semester or lecture period. The date is binding and can only be postponed for valid reasons. The disputation lasts approx. 20 minutes. During this time, you should give an introductory report on the methodological principles and results of your dissertation and respond to questions in a concluding discussion. The presentation will be in free speech.

After passing the defense, you must submit deposit copies of your dissertation within six months to the Exchange and University Publication Office of the University Library of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum. The library will issue you with a certificate of successful submission. The doctoral certificate can be collected from the doctoral office during office hours at the earliest 30 days after passing the defense on presentation of a valid identity card and the certificate from the university library.

The ethics committee must approve all scientific work in clinical research. The application to the ethics committee is submitted by your first supervisor. You can find more information in our information sheet on submitting a dissertation.

If you wish to change your doctoral supervisor, please write an informal letter to the doctoral committee and request the change. You, the current doctoral supervisor and the future doctoral supervisor must declare their consent to the change with their signatures. The letter must be sent to the doctoral office (digitally).

You need a publication with first authorship and impact factor >1, in exceptional cases with good justification also a shared first authorship with impact factor >2. Your own contribution to the conception, collection and analysis of the data as well as to the writing of the article must be stated.

Send us a letter by e-mail to the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine requesting a duplicate of your doctoral certificate. This must include a reason for requesting the duplicate (e.g. loss of the certificate after moving, etc.). In addition, we need a copy of your certificate (if not available, we need the date of your disputation), a copy of your identity card and your current address for sending the duplicate.