GrACe | Graduate Centre

You can also pursue a bi-national doctorate and obtain a degree from the two participating universities after successfully completing the doctoral procedure. A bi-national or cross-border doctorate requires a stay at both universities during the doctorate and means that supervision, assessment and the examination procedure take place with the participation of both universities. For this purpose, an individual agreement in the form of a contract must be concluded between the two universities involved and with the doctoral candidate. It is not a mandatory requirement that a cooperation already exists between Bielefeld University and the partner university abroad. The individual contract regulates, among other things, the supervision of the doctoral candidate by supervisors from both universities, the stays at both universities, the language and the topic of the dissertation, the doctoral examination procedure (appointment of the examiners, composition of the joint examination committee, the requirements, forms and assessment criteria for the individual examinations (dissertation and oral examination), the doctoral degrees to be awarded, etc.).

A bi-national doctoral procedure does not mean that two doctoral degrees are awarded on the basis of a doctoral thesis and a jointly conducted doctoral procedure. Rather, it is a matter of two doctoral degrees referring to each other, whereby either the German or the foreign doctoral degree may be stated or used. Following the successful doctoral procedure and after publication of the dissertation, either a joint certificate of both participating higher education institutions is awarded, or if this is not possible for legal reasons, two certificates referring to each other are handed out, in which it is noted that the doctoral degree was obtained in a cross-border doctoral procedure with another higher education institution.

The Scientific Personel Developement Team will be happy to advise you on the opportunities and challenges of a bi-national doctorate. In addition, contact persons in the faculties are of course also available to answer your questions. If you have decided to do a bi-national doctorate, please get in touch with the contact persons or examination offices in your faculty and discuss the further steps for the contractual arrangements. The Department for Academic Affairs of the Department of Studies and Teaching is responsible for this.