PhD Program
In the section below, you can find all the important information about our PhD Program.
GENERAL INFORMATION
There is no general application deadline for our PhD positions.
The scholarships of the Kühne Foundation are typically announced in January or February with applications being possible from then on until all scholarship are assigned. The scholarship holders typically start at KLU on September 1st of each year.
Positions for research associates are offered throughout the year depending on the time that the funding for the research project is granted. You need to check the respective job announcement for the application deadline.
To make sure that you don‘t miss any announcements, please follow us on LinkedIn.
You can apply for a position with your current transcript of records. If any grades are missing, please indicate which grades are missing and until when you will have finished your master degree.
KLU has two departments:
1) Operations and Technologies
2) Leadership and Management
The doctoral program as well as the KLU research seminar are organized across these two departments, and we also encourage interdisciplinary research projects.
We also have several research groups that focus on specific topics at KLU. These research groups focus on Humanitarian, Maritime, Organizational Behavior, Data Science, Sustainability, Food, and Operations/Supply Chain Management. The research groups typically meet once per month to discuss current research studies, current developments, and issues in research.
We offer all research topics that are covered by the KLU faculty within the two departments, i.e., Operations and Technologies as well as Leadership and Management.
For a better understanding of research topics, please visit the personal descriptions of the KLU resident faculty on this website.
Please find below the titles of the dissertations of our 10 most recent graduates.
Yes! KLU strongly encourages international cooperations and international research stays. Typically, students go for an international stay during their 3rd year, sometimes earlier or later depending on the specific goal of their research visit. The goal is very often an international research cooperation and the host becoming a co-author in one of the projects. Another reason may be to learn a specific research method or to learn more about a specific topic.
- For the scholarships that are provided by the Kühne foundation, you need to find a supervisor before you apply for the scholarship. Please check the professor profiles on the KLU homepage to see who is working in your area of interest and contact them. Ideally, you write an email with a short description of your intended topic and a current CV (including grades and specializations).
- For research projects, the supervisor is indicated in the job offering for the position.
Yes. We offer flexibility and at the same time, also encourage our PhD candidates to regularly come to KLU for work. One big advantage of coming to KLU is that you are surrounded by your peers who can very often help you and with whom you can share the sometimes challenging experiences while doing a PhD. We do not have a general regulation in terms of days and you need to discuss with your supervisor what your best mode of work is.
For more information on housing, please check out our article about finding accommodation in Hamburg.
LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS
Yes, the language of research is English and we are an English speaking university. Thus, research papers are in English, courses are in English, and your dissertation will be in English.
There are several ways to prove your English language proficiency.
Please note, proof of English proficiency can be submitted by July 31st. Do not wait to apply until you receive your test scores, rather apply early and proactively and submit them at a later date.
- TOEFL (iBT: 90)*
- TOEFL "MyBest Scores" (iBT: 90)
- TOEFL “Special Home Edition” (iBT: 90)
- IELTS Academic (band 6.5)*
- IELTS Online Academic Test (band 6.5)*
- CAE (grade C) / CPE (180 points)*
- FCE Cambridge English (grade A)*
- Pearson PTE Academic (also online version) (score 61)*
- IB diploma (for Bachelor's and Master's program)
- In case of admission, please note that you will need an official score report (hardcopy) for the enrolment. Therefore, please name KLU if possible when registering for a test (TOEFL institutional code is 7373).
*Test score reports should not be older than two years at the time of application.
Applicable for MSc International Management & MSc Global Logistics and SCM:
- Bachelor degree in English, if proof of English language proficiency was an admission requirement and can still be proven (according to the above mentioned KLU standards).
- English high school qualification in a native speaker country combined with a Bachelor's degree in a language different to English.
KLU is an English speaking university. Therefore, all courses and the general communication at KLU is in English. Nonetheless, there are some research projects in which German language proficiency is necessary to communicate with project partners. Please check the job opening of the research project and ask the responsible professor in case of doubt.
If you want, you have the opportunity to attend German classes. So, you don‘t need German language skills but you are free to learn German if you want to.
