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Thuringia is booming: record number of doctoral students at universities!
Erfurt, July 16, 2025: The number of doctoral students at Thuringia's universities is increasing, especially in mathematics and medicine.
Thuringia is booming: record number of doctoral students at universities!
In Thuringia, promotions are booming like never before. At the end of 2024, there were already 6,351 doctoral students who had committed themselves to their academic career. That is almost 1,000 more than in 2018 and a clear indicator that interest in the highest academic award remains unbroken Frankenpost reported.
The trend continues: Compared to the previous year, there was an increase of 138 people, which corresponds to 2.2 percent. Compared to 2022, this is an increase of 8.1 percent, which underlines the attractiveness of Thuringia's universities and shows that something is happening here.
Popular subjects and universities
The subjects mathematics, natural sciences and medicine are particularly in demand. Of the 6,351 doctoral students, 4,453 study at the renowned Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, while around every fourth doctoral student comes from abroad. This shows that Thuringian universities are very popular internationally NNZ supplemented.
The distribution of doctoral students shows a clear preference for certain disciplines. 1,652 people in mathematics and science, including 446 in biology and 395 in chemistry, are pursuing doctorates. In the field of human medicine there are 1,465, with 1,306 working in medicine.
Gender distribution and internationality
The gender distribution among doctoral candidates is remarkable: as of December 1, 2024, the proportion of women was 48.9 percent, which corresponds to 3,108 people. The proportion of women among international doctoral students is 47.3 percent, which shows that women from abroad also dare to take the step towards a doctorate. In total, 28.1 percent of doctoral candidates come from abroad, which makes around 1,786. Academics informs that the proportion of women varies greatly between the federal states and is over 50 percent in both the city states and Schleswig-Holstein.
The trend towards doctorates can therefore not only be observed in Thuringia, but probably also nationwide. In North Rhine-Westphalia, for example, the most doctoral students were counted in 2021 with 5,505, followed by Bavaria with 4,946. It remains to be seen whether Thuringia can continue this development and continue to be a magnet for academics in the future.