Doctoral Education

Doctoral education — also commonly known as doctoral or PhD studies — is an important step in your academic career, whether you intend to pursue research in academia or a career in industry.

The University of Luxembourg has four Doctoral Schools :

• Doctoral School in Science and Engineering (DSSE)
• Doctoral School of Law
• Doctoral School in Economics, Finance and Management (DSEFM)
• Doctoral School in Humanities and Social Sciences (DSHSS)

Each doctoral candidate needs to enrol in one of the doctoral programmes offered by the Doctoral Schools (according to the law of 27 June 2018, article 37).

You can apply all year long. Enrolment fees are €200 per semester.

At the University of Luxembourg, structured doctoral programmes combine coursework and research phases carried out over three to four years for full-time students:

• Disciplinary and/or interdisciplinary research work;
• Customised courses, enabling you to acquire advanced academic knowledge and a range of transferable skills; and
• Defence of your original academic work—the doctoral dissertation—before a distinguished committee of experts.

How to apply for doctoral studies:

The University law (art. 32, 3) and the Study regulations (Chapter 1) define access to doctoral studies at the University of Luxembourg.

You are eligible to apply for admission to doctoral studies at the University of Luxembourg if you hold a Master degree (or equivalent), as defined in the law; please be aware that Master degrees from outside Europe need to be equivalent to level 7 as defined in the Luxembourgish law on recognition of degrees.

You also need to identify a supervisor of your thesis before you apply. In order to identify a supervisor, please refer to the pages of the departments, to the supervisor lists on this page, or have a look at the relevant job offers.

Admission is based on a selection process. The Office of doctoral studies will guide you through the process and will provide a link to an online application form once your file is ready for this.

Please refer to the FAQ section for more specific information.

If you are an external doctoral candidate and wish to attend Transferable Skills courses, please learn more about the registration process on the Doctoral Training page.

Interested in becoming a supervisor?

If you are a new supervisor, or would like to know more about supervision at the University of Luxembourg, check out our PhD supervisor page.