Center for Postgraduate Studies Center for Postgraduate Studies

Although HAW Hamburg is not entitled to award doctoral degrees, it offers an excellent setting for successful PhD projects. In this regard, HAW Hamburg differs somewhat from large, research-based universities. For example, the smaller overall number of doctoral students means more cooperative and interdisciplinary exchange between students and more intensive supervision from the university's professors. The university's focus on applied sciences generally also means that the research projects are more application oriented. The main focus is the HAW Hamburg's research areas, but it can also extend beyond them.

On 1 March 2025, HAW Hamburg was granted the right to award doctorates for three doctoral programmes, which have been brought together within the HAW Hamburg Research School. Since the beginning of 2026, it has been possible to apply directly for admission as a doctoral candidate to one of the doctoral programmes.

Cooperative doctoral studies refers to doctoral work carried out jointly at research institutions that are not entitled to award doctoral degrees and at universities in Germany and abroad that are entitled to award doctoral degrees. Doctoral dissertations completed at HAW Hamburg in cooperation with partner universities are thus considered to be assessments from the respective partner universities.

From the perspective of the individual university, HAW Hamburg is an external partner in this process, but depending on the concrete nature of the cooperative doctoral work, HAW Hamburg may bear primary responsibility for the supervision and success of a particular doctoral project. The original research involved in these cooperative processes and with it students' qualification to conduct independent and in-depth academic work generally takes place at HAW Hamburg and is supervised here. This means that HAW Hamburg is responsible for the successful supervision of independent and original research and the qualification of doctoral students.