Although many universities repeatedly emphasize how important their doctoral candidates are to them, the reality is often quite different. At many locations, it is unclear how doctoral candidates can even be reached, as central structures are lacking or only function incompletely. An alarming number of universities do not even know who is doing a doctorate at their institution until a dissertation is submitted and the process officially begins. Without reliable registration, doctoral students remain invisible and thus have no access to advice, participation, or protective structures. But even doctoral student representatives find it difficult to reach all doctoral students by email or similar means without a central structure. For us as a federal association, this is a structural problem that massively impairs the quality and fairness of the doctoral phase. What is the situation at your university? Are there effective ways to reach all doctoral candidates?
Central registration is already working
Positive examples such as the University of Jena and the Technical University of Munich show what effective structures for reaching doctoral candidates can look like. Both universities use mandatory online platforms that new doctoral candidates must register with in order to be integrated into the central graduate structure. In Munich, this is done via the “Doctoral Candidacy List” in the DocGS system, while in Jena, the doc-in system is used. In this system, doctoral candidates must update their doctoral status at least once a year and provide a valid contact address. These systems create transparency and enable continuous communication about counseling services, events, or important administrative information. At the same time, they increase the visibility of doctoral candidates and make it easier for graduate institutions to identify needs at an early stage. Conclusion: Where functioning registration systems exist, both doctoral candidates and universities benefit from clear structures and reliable accessibility.
Are there any benefits from such a registration?
A central registration system strengthens the democratic legitimacy of doctoral student representatives, as it is the only way to clearly identify who they represent and how these individuals can be contacted. Without a complete contact database, elections, participation procedures, or surveys can only involve a small proportion of the actual doctoral students and are therefore less binding. A functioning registration system ensures that all early-career researchers have the same opportunities to be informed, cast their vote, and get involved. This is also important because the federal association is in turn legitimized by the locally elected doctoral student representatives, and its work is only truly representative if the local structures have broad democratic support. This creates a continuous democratic chain from the individual doctoral candidate to the local representatives to the federal association, which can only function stably if all doctoral candidates can be reliably reached.
That is why we would like to engage in dialogue with you. Does your university know you, and can your doctoral representatives reach you effectively? What do you consider to be appropriate ways of finding effective solutions to this problem? We are particularly interested in your experiences with structures that work or are lacking, and which models you believe would be truly viable.
