Our editorial series “The Ten” continues. We have compiled a few facts and figures on the topic of doctoral studies for you from the Federal Report on Young Academics.
- There are 196,200 doctoral students in Germany.
- 56 percent of doctoral students are men, 44 percent are women.
- On average, doctoral students are 29 years old.
- More than half of all doctoral students choose the standard path and do their doctorate at a university chair. In addition to the standard path, there are also structured doctoral programs.
- 5,000 doctoral students are pursuing their doctorates within the framework of one of the 230 research training groups of the German Research Foundation.
- Doctoral students across all disciplines have an average of 1,261 euros per month at their disposal.
- For 53 percent of doctoral students, at least one parent has a university degree.
- The average doctoral duration is 4.5 years, with structured formats tending to have a slightly shorter doctoral duration and engineering generally having the longest doctoral duration.
- If we look at final grades, taking up a doctorate is positively related to academic performance. The same applies to taking up a job as a research assistant during studies.
- A doctorate provides financial advantages in later professional life.
This and further information can be found in the
Bundesbericht Wissenschaftlicher Nachwuchs 2017 – Statistische Daten und Forschungsbefunde zu Promovierenden und Promovierten in Deutschland, Centrum für Hochschulentwicklung (CHE), Deutsches Zentrum für Hochschul- und Wissenschaftsforschung (DZHV), Institut für Forschungsinformationen und Qualitätssicherung, Statistisches Bundesamt, ISBN 978-3-7639-5850-4, W. Bertelsmann Verlag.