Cooperative PhD

Write a thesis as an FH graduate.
Franz Himpsl
Freier Autor

Dr. Franz Himpsl ist Journalist. Er war bis April 2019 Redakteur der Deutschen Universitätszeitung und für das Magazin von OpenD verantwortlich. Er hat in Regensburg und Rom Philosophie, Anglistik und Wissenschaftsgeschichte studiert und eine Doktorarbeit über die Freiheit der Wissenschaft verfasst.

The cooperation that gives this kind of PhD its name refers to the types of universities that supervise it, as this is a joint project by Universities of Applied Sciences (Fachhochschule, FH) and traditional universities. However, the hurdles to admission are high, and only the best FH graduates are accepted.

Normally, you cannot earn a PhD based on an FH degree. In this respect, a cooperative PhD is a unique opportunity specifically for those graduates of Universities of Applied Sciences who carried out their studies in close proximity to research and would like to be supervised by a university professor.

PhD students who pursue a cooperative PhD will have to overcome an institutional gap, as they are faced with the problem of seeking initial support—alone or with the help of an FH professor—from an institution they do not know, according to Dr Ansgar Keller, author of a PhD guide for graduates of Universities of Applied Sciences. Another difficulty is the deeper theoretical foundation: it is important to understand the university’s ideas about the academic or scientific content of one’s own project correctly and then to implement them.