Funding & Legal Matters

There are a number of steps you need to take before you can hold your doctoral certificate in your hands. Below, you will find the formal procedures and legal guidelines relevant to your doctorate.

Project funding

The project and its related costs, such as travel expenses for fieldwork or resources for a student assistant, can be partially funded through applications for internal research funding at the University of Education Freiburg. Doctoral candidates in structured doctoral programs (research training groups, graduate schools) typically have access to funding for project-related expenses.

Funding your personal living costs

Personal living costs can be funded through various means, such as:

  • Employment at the university, for example, in a third-party funded project, a qualification position involving research and teaching, or in academic management (see job listings).
  • A doctoral scholarship, such as those offered by the state graduate funding programme (Landesgraduiertenförderung) or other funding bodies (see below).
  • A university teaching position available to school teachers through transfer programmes, typically within the framework of a graduate school.
  • Employment outside the university.
  • A student loan.
  • Personal savings, support from family, partner, etc.

For advice and support about funding, please contact Heike Ehrhardt, Prorectorate for Research and Academic Career Development, forschung(at)ph-freiburg.de

Funding the publication of your doctoral thesis

The doctoral thesis can be published as either a monograph or, within the framework of the doctorate by published work, a series of articles. Monographs can be published free of charge via the university's reposity Hochschulschriftenserver der Pädagogischen Hochschule Freiburg. If you want to publish your doctoral thesis with a publisher, you will have to cover the printing expenses yourself. In certain cases it is possible to receive funding for printing expenses by VG Wort or other funding bodies. In the ELFI database, you can view these under “Förderart” (type of funding) - ‘Zuschüsse’ (grants) - “Druckkostenzuschuss” (printing cost subsidy). You may first need to register while you are logged in to the University of Education network in order to gain full access to the database, for example to filter results according to your subject area. If you need assistance in navigating the database, please contact the Prorectorate for Research and Academic Career Development.

In addition to an individual doctorate, a doctoral project can also be carried out as part of a structured doctoral programme.

These doctoral programes (e.g. research training groups, graduate schools) usually comprise several subprojects on an overarching topic. Applications are made to one or more of the subprojects advertised, the project leaders of which also act as supervisors for the doctoral project. Depending on the type and resources of the doctoral programme, the doctorate may be funded through a scholarship, a university teaching post in the context of a transfer programme available to school teachers, or an employment contract. Under certain circumstances, an individual doctorate may also be associated with an existing research training group.  

An overview of new, ongoing and completed doctoral programmes as well as calls for applications for new programmes can also be found on the website of the Competence Network for Empirical Educational Research (KeBU) and under Projects.

The University of Education Freiburg awards doctoral scholarships in accordance with the State Graduate Funding Act (LGFG) to outstanding doctoral candidates, subject to the allocation of funds by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research, and the Arts. The full-time scholarships are awarded individually and are not tied to any specific field of study. However, in case of a subject-related fit, an association to an existing doctoral programme of the University of Education Freiburg is possible.

Details of the legal basis for the State Graduate Funding Program (Landesgraduiertenförderung) can be found in:

General information about scholarships under the State Graduate Funding Act (LGFG scholarship) can be found in the document Hinweise zum LGFG-Stipendium .

Calls for Applications

Announcements advertising funding for doctoral study are published below, via the mailing list for postgraduate and early career researchers and on the page funding and vacancies for postgraduate and early career researchers of our website

+++At present, no scholarship is being offered.+++

The award

The award and the amount of the doctoral scholarship is decided by an awards committee. In the case of the University of Education Freiburg the awards committee is the Senate Committee for Research and Academic Career Development. It is chaired by the Prorector for Research and Academic Career Development.

Funding

The most important key points of the statutes of the University of Education Freiburg for the implementation of the State Graduate Funding Act (LGFG) of May 20, 2025, are::

  • Basic amount of EUR 1,300 per month
  • Standard funding period of three years
  • Short-term scholarships are possible
  • Extension of the standard funding period to four years for the care and upbringing of at least one child under the age of 14, or in the case of a GdB > 30% or chronic illness, or for the care of relatives with a proven care level
  • Child allowance of EUR 300/month for one child, EUR 50/month for each additional child
  • Full-time scholarship, part-time work to a limited extent (max. 10 hours/week) possible under certain conditions
  • Applicants must already have been accepted as a doctoral student at a faculty of the University of Education Freiburg
  • Individual doctoral candidates may affiliate with a relevant graduate school if they are a good fit
  • Support for Independent Study: Scholarship holders pursuing independent doctoral studies receive support from the Graduate Academy for Educational Sciences and additional university-wide resources.

The start of the funding period depends on the availability of funds.

The doctoral project may be pursued in any research area relevant to the University of Education Freiburg.

The application

Applications can only be accepted from doctoral students who have already been accepted at the University of Education Freiburg. There is no entitlement to a scholarship or special grants.

For details on how to apply and the required application documents, please refer to the respective call for applications and the document Information on the LGFG Scholarship (only available in German).

The LGFG initial application form and the other application documents (including research proposal, references, etc.) must be submitted exclusively in electronic form (PDF) to the Prorectorate for Research and Academic Career Development, forschung(at)ph-freiburg.de, by the respective application deadline. The total size of the PDF documents must not exceed 15 MB. Failure to comply with the application deadline or application form may result in the application being rejected.

The LGFG initial application form (LGFG-Erstantragsformular) and the other application documents (incl. reserch proposal, expert opinion, etc.) must be sent to the Office of the Vice President Research and Academic Career Support, forschung(at)ph-freiburg.de, exclusively in electronic form (PDF) by the specified application deadline. The size of the PDF documents must not exceed 15 MB in total. Failure to meet the application deadline or adhere to the required application format may lead to rejection of the application.

The application letter or the reserch proposal should present the doctoral topic in a way that clearly demonstrates its innovation, methodological soundness, feasibility within the proposed timeline, and anticipated knowledge contribution and relevance of the research question.

Funding periods

No later than six weeks before the end of the respective funding phase (1st to 12th month of funding, 13th to 24th month of funding, 25th to 30th month of funding, 31st to 36th month of funding, 37th to 48th month of funding if applicable), an application for continuation of the scholarship can be submitted to the awards committee (forschung(at)ph-freiburg.de).

This requires a work report (see notes on the work report for continued approval / Arbeitsbericht für eine Weiterbewilligung) and a review from a supervisor assessing the scholarship holder's performance to date.

Final report

No later than six months after the end of funding period, the scholarship holder must submit confirmation from the faculty that the dissertation has been submitted (forschung(at)ph-freiburg.de).

If the dissertation cannot be submitted by this date, the reasons for this and the intended progress of the work must be explained. In addition, a report on the work during the last funding period, the status of the work project and the timetable up to the submission of the dissertation must be submitted to the awards committee (see notes on the work report after the end of funding / Hinweise zum Arbeitsbericht nach Förderende). The work report must be supplemented by a review from a supervisor.

Advice

If you have any questions about the application process or about interruptions, maternity leave, part-time employment, etc., please contact the Prorectorate for Research and Academic Career Development. The contact person for LGFG scholarships is Heike Ehrhardt, forschung(at)ph-freiburg.de.

In addition to the State Graduate Funding Programme scholarships, which are awarded internally by universities, there are numerous external scholarship providers.

Organisations for the promotion of outstanding students 

There are thirteen organisations whose framework conditions are specified by the funding guidelines of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and which provide support to outstanding students and early career academics:

At Stipendium plus you will find a collection of information on the BMBF's organisations for the promotion of outstanding students.

Local scholarship programmes

Scholarships for students and doctoral candidates at the University of Education Freiburg, the University of Freiburg and the University of Music Freiburg

Scholarship databases

To make it easier to find a suitable scholarship, various scholarship databases are available online:

  • DAAD Scholarship Database Provided by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for study, research, or teaching stays abroad.
  • German Foundation Centre (Deutsches Stiftungszentrum) A database with programme and project funding, prizes, scholarships, and publication grants from private individuals, corporations and companies.
  • mystipendium.de Matches your profile with around 3,200 scholarship programmes.
  • e-fellows.net Features over 1,000 entries from around 450 foundations, colleges, universities and other institutions.

Recurring calls for applications and doctoral programmes

Further information can be found here.

A secondment as a teacher for the purpose of pursing a doctorate is generally only possible within the framework of a structured doctoral programme. Current vacancies can be found on the website of the Competence Network for Empirical Education and Teaching Research (Kompetenzverbund empirische Bildungs- und Unterrichtsforschung (KeBU)) and in the official gazette Kultus und Unterricht (K.u.U.) of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport of Baden-Württemberg.

Internal university statutes, regulations, guidelines...

The current statutes and regulations of the University of Education Freiburg can be found in the Official Announcements (Amtliche Bekanntmachungen). These and the documents linked below are only available in German.

Doctoral Regulations of the University of Education Freiburg - PromO
- 1st amendment to the Doctoral Regulations of the University of Education Freiburg

Statutes of the University of Education Freiburg on the association of university lecturers from universities of applied sciences – Association Statutes
- 1st amendment to the Association Statutes of the University of Education Freiburg

Statutes of the University of Education Freiburg on good scientific practice and scientific misconduct - GWP Statutes (Reading version)

Statutes of the University of Education Freiburg on the implementation of the State Graduate Funding Acts - LGFG Statutes

Admission and Enrolment Regulations of the University of Education Freiburg - ZIO
- 1st Amendment to the Admission and Enrolment Regulation - ZIO_1

Inter-university laws

Law on fixed-term employment contracts in academia - WissZeitVG

Law on the promotion of early career scientists and artists (State Graduate Funding Act) - LGFG

Law on universities in Baden-Württemberg (State University Act) - LHG

Doctoral Studies in Freiburg

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