General information
If you planning your doctorate at the Faculty of Medicine, you must first find a potential supervisor and prepare an exposé of the planned research project. Furthermore, you must attend the basic module and have passed the first section of the medical examination or the preliminary examination in dentistry. Please refer to the information sheet on the requirements for doctoral studies. If you are carrying out a retrospective research project, please note the self-declaration for retrospective projects. Every doctoral candidate should be able to conclude a supervision agreement with their supervisor.
Requirements for admission as a doctoral candidate:
- The first section of the medical examination (M1 state examination) or the preliminary dental examination must be passed
- Preparation of an exposé on the planned research project (confirmation and admission via the doctoral office)
- Registration in Docfile
- Attending the basic module (possible up to 4 weeks after the start of the doctorate)
LINK > Information on Docfile
Once the doctoral office has confirmed the exposé form, you are accepted as a doctoral candidate at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Cologne. From then on, you must be continuously enrolled at the University of Cologne for the duration of the doctoral project in accordance with § 67 of the NRW Higher Education Act.
LINK > Information on enrollment
Exposé
For detailed information on the structure and scope of the exposé, please refer to the corresponding template.
The exposé must be written before admission as a doctoral candidate. For further information on admission as a doctoral candidate, please refer to the relevant information sheet.
Information on the basic module of the Graduate School of Human Medicine and Dentistry
The basic module is offered as an e-learning format with an e-exam. You can find the lectures in ILIAS. If you are enrolled at the University of Cologne (UzK), you can join the course and access the content using the following link:
https://www.ilias.uni-koeln.de/ilias/goto.php?target=crs_4790652_rcodeSf48RxGxXG&client_id=uk
Notes for the participation of external doctoral students:
Participation is only possible after enrollment at the UoC, you must proceed as follows:
- Before you start your doctorate, you must write an exposé of the planned project.
- You must then register yourself and your project directly in Docfile (candidate status).
- As soon as your file has been checked by the doctoral office, please request a doctoral confirmation by e-mail, with which you must immediately enrol as a doctoral student
- Once you have enrolled, you will have access to the e-learning module in ILIAS via your student account (see link above).
If you are studying at another university, you must enrol as a minor secondary student; in this case, please also inform the Docfile team after you have registered in Docfile medfak-docfile@uni-koeln.de
Self-declaration for retrospective research projects
For all projects started after 23.07.25, a consultation obligation also applies to retrospective projects. In this case, please contact your formal supervisor directly and refer to the website of the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Medicine for information on submitting ethics applications via the ethikPool application portal. Please refrain from sending queries by e-mail, processing and assessment is only possible when submitting via ethikPool! If you are conducting a retrospective research project that was started before 23.07.25, you can submit a self-declaration on the retrospective character in accordance with § 9 paragraph 2 (f) of the doctoral regulations. All further information can be found in the template for the self-declaration.