From December 1, 2025, the following procedure must be followed for initial enrolment in a doctoral degree programme:

Since August 9, 2024, supervisory agreements have been mandatory for new doctorates at the University of Wuppertal (BUW).

Once the supervision of your doctoral project has been clarified, fill out the following supervisory agreement together with the supervising professor.

The supervisory agreement as a fillable PDF version (German and English):

1. Betreuungsvereinbarung Doktorarbeiten BUW 2024
2. Supervisory agreement for doctoral projects BUW 2024

Further information can be found in Amtliche Mitteilungen 50/24 and on the website of the Center for Graduate Studies. The supervisory agreement does not confer any legal entitlement to admission to doctoral studies!

Once you have concluded a supervisory agreement, you can now apply for admission. A subject-specific and formal examination will determine whether you can be admitted to the doctoral programme.

The "Application for admission" is submitted online and requires a StudiLöwe account with the role of Student/-in or Bewerber/-in.

Preparation

• You are currently enrolled and therefore have an active StudiLöwe account with the role of Student/in:
  → No further preparation is required; you can submit your PhD application directly via Service → Anträge → Promotion (Service → Requests → PhD studies).
• You have never been enrolled at UW, or you are employed at UW but have never been enrolled with us before (e.g. in the role of guest, lecturer or examiner), or you do not have a StudiLöwe account with the role of student:
  → First register on the page linked here.This will assign you the role of applicant.
  (If the ‘duplicate check’ is triggered for you, please contact the Student Registry or the International Student Registry.)
• You have deregistered from the university and your previous StudiLöwe account with the role of student is no longer active:
  → Please contact the Student Registry or the International Student Registry to obtain an account for re-enrolment, either by email or in person at the SSC. We will need your current address and a copy of your identity card or passport. Please do not re-register on the portal!

Submitting an application

1. Log in to StudiLöwe and select the role of Student/-in or Bewerber/-in.

2. Navigate to: Service → Anträge → Promotion (Service → Requests → PhD studies).

3. Click on the tile "Neuen Antrag erfassen" (Create new application).

4. The application will now be displayed. Please fill in all the required fields carefully.

PLEASE NOTE: If you hold a foreign university entrance qualification, please select „Erwerb der HZB an einer deutschen Schule im Ausland“ as the qualification type (HZB-Art) and enter 4,0 as your average grade. Your details will be updated when your application is processed at a later stage. 

Once you have checked and completed all the information, you can submit the application. The application will then be forwarded to the doctoral degree examination board of your school for review. As soon as the review has been completed, you will receive a notification from the examination board informing you of the result.

If your application for admission has been approved, you must now enrol at BUW. According to § 67 paragraph 5 sentence 1 HG NRW, those entitled to admission according to § 67 paragraph 4 HG NRW are enrolled as doctoral candidates at the university at which they wish to do their doctorate. The student admission and registration for international students is responsible for enrolment at BUW.

Once the doctoral degree examination boards have approved your “Antrag auf Zulassung”, they will electronically approve your enrolment request.

As soon as you have been notified of this by email, log in to StudiLöwe and, using the role Doktorand/in, navigate to: Mein Studium - Immatrikulationsaufforderungen (My Studies – Enrolment Requests). Apply for enrolment and work through the screens displayed, upload the documents required for enrolment (university entrance qualification, identity card and academic history) and submit the application.

If you have previously been enrolled with us and now wish to re-enrol, please let us know briefly by email.

If you obtained your university entrance qualification outside Germany and have not yet been enrolled at BUW, please select „Erwerb der HZB an einer deutschen Schule im Ausland“ (“University entrance qualification obtained at a German school abroad”) as the qualification type (HZB-Art) and enter 4,0 as your average grade. Your details will be updated when your application is processed at a later stage.

The Student Registry (studsek[at]uni-wuppertal.de) or the International Student Registry (doctorate[at]uni-wuppertal.de) are responsible for enrolment at BUW. Please feel free to contact them if you have any queries regarding enrolment.