Doctorates

A doctorate is an independent research project, in which the doctoral student is supported by a supervisor.

It consists of two parts:

• completion of a dissertation or doctoral thesis (comprehensive academic paper) presenting the research methods and results
• an oral examination.

Both parts must be completed successfully to obtain a doctoral degree. Doctorates usually take 3-4 years to complete.  

Mainz University offers different types of doctorates:

• Individual doctorate under the guidance of a supervisor only
• Structured doctorate with additional integration into a structured training program:
  
  1. Such programs are offered by the following at JGU: A Graduate School as part of the German federal and federal state Excellence Initiative
  2. 10 Research Training Groups
  3. An international doctoral program
  4. Two Max Planck Research
  5. A list of all structured programs with links to their respective home pages can be found here.