Finding supervisor and topic

The first step to a doctorate is to find a supervisor as well as a topic for your project. 

Potential supervisors at Leuphana University of Lüneburg are professors who are experts in their field, and who research and teach on the Masters programs at Leuphana University of Lüneburg. You are responsible for initial contact.

The professors are attached to the schools and institutes at Leuphana. You can access the professors' pages by searching for "People" on the school websites. These pages generally list the professors' current research and publications, and will give you an idea of whether they are researching in a relevant field for your proposed topic. In addition, you will find potential supervisors for your research topic within Leuphana’s doctoral research groups. Several professors have also outlined their main areas of research and their preferred method of contact on the ‘Doctoral topics’ page. 

The search for a suitable supervisor and for a dissertation topic often runs in parallel, as the dissertation topic you have in mind must correspond to the research profile of your potential supervisor. In principle, you must develop your dissertation topic – or, more specifically, the research question for your dissertation – yourself.

For any questions related to this topic, you can contact the counseling service at the Graduate School.

You would like to do your doctorate while working and are wondering how often you need to be in Lüneburg? Please clarify this question with the advised supervisor!

Throughout your doctorate, you will be supervised by your supervisor, who was appointed by the doctoral board upon your admission. They will support you on your way to becoming part of the scientific community.

In order to clarify mutual expectations and with the aim of making the supervisory relationship transparent in terms of content and time, you will conclude a supervision agreement with your supervisor prior to admission to the doctorate. This also serves to ensure the quality of the planning and realisation of your doctoral project. Please submit the supervision agreement with your admission documents to Student Services.

In the further supervision relationship, you will have a so-called planning meeting with your supervisor by the end of the first semester at the latest. This includes joint agreements, e.g. on time and work schedules, funding, specific supervision, progress meetings as well as (further) qualification and career planning.