Doing a doctorate at our Faculty
Studying
Our Faculty offers various doctorate/PhD degree programmes. As a cooperative graduate school for sociology and history, the Bielefeld Graduate School in History and Sociology offers a structured and diverse doctoral programme. We also have three Research Training Groups: RTG 2225 World politics, RTG 2951 Cross-Border Labour Markets and RTG 2650 Gender as Experience.
It is also possible to study for a doctorate without a degree programme. Instead of a study programme, an annual presentation in the context of a thematically relevant colloquium or doctoral seminar and a six-monthly consultation with the first supervisor on the basis of a work report are required. The international doctoral programme and the doctoral/PhD programme without a study programme are governed by the doctoral regulations and the study regulations of 1 June 2015.
- Deadlines for the submission of completed doctoral theses
Committee dates and the deadlines for submitting documents for the opening of doctoral procedures
Deadlines for the summer semester 2025:
Submission of documents to the examination office (at the latest) on:
- Tuesday, 08.04.2025
- Tuesday, 20.05.2025
- Tuesday, 10 June 2025
- Tuesday, 24 June 2025
Meeting of the doctoral committee:
- Wednesday, 16/04/2025
- Wednesday, 28/05/2025
- Wednesday, 18/06/2025
- Wednesday, 02/07/2025
Changes at short notice are possible!
- Checklist for doctoral candidates at the start of the doctoral procedure
You would like to submit your doctoral thesis and are not sure which documents to include? This checklist will help you to compile the required documents. Please submit all documents exclusively digitally (as a PDF file) to the examination office at the following address: promotionsausschuss.soz@uni-bielefeld.de.
- Documents
- Contact person in the examination office
Graduate institutions
Bielefeld Graduate School in History and Sociology (BGHS)
The Bielefeld Graduate School in History and Sociology at Bielefeld University organises and coordinates the Structured PhD programme of the Department of History and the Faculty of Sociology. Doctoral students from the Bielefeld Graduate School in History and Sociology come from all over the world and conduct research on all topics that can be supervised by the participating professors. This enables a broad interdisciplinary and international academic exchange within the framework of the study programme. At the same time, the Bielefeld Graduate School in History and Sociology sponsors individual activities of doctoral students and recognises these as academic achievements.
Research Training Group 2225: World Politics
The Research Training Group 2225 is concerned with the emergence of world politics as a specific form of politics. With a distinctly research-oriented, interdisciplinary and international profile, it examines the paths that have led to the establishment of world politics as a specific form of politics that does not somehow result from the modern form of the (nation) state, but goes hand in hand with it and with the principle of sovereign equality.
Through its research programme and institutional links, the RTG aims to promote a dialogue between the fields and approaches of International Relations, International Political Sociology, Global History and Law in relation to world society approaches.
Research Training Group 2951: Cross-Border Labour Markets
The RTG 2951 offers outstanding doctoral candidates the opportunity to participate in an innovative research and qualification programme at the forefront of interdisciplinary labour market research with a global focus.
It also pursues a highly innovative research programme, as it understands and focuses on cross-border labour markets as social structures. Although cross-border labour mobility and migration have become central topics in globalisation research, "cross-border labour markets" have not yet been treated as a sui generis phenomenon in conventional labour market analysis.
Research Training Group 2650: Gender as Experience
The unique scientific feature of the RTG 2650 is the idea of theoretically conceptualising gender as an experience and thus strengthening embodied gender research within and across disciplines. Researchers from sociology, political science, literary studies, Educational Science, Sports Science, health science and medicine focus on the fact that people are physically constituted living beings who existentially experience their genderedness.
