Thuringia is booming: Record number of doctoral students at the universities!

Thuringia is booming: Record number of doctoral students at the universities!

Erfurt, Deutschland - In Thuringia, the promotions boom as rarely before. At the end of 2024 there were already 6,351 doctoral students who had bitten their academic career. That is almost 1,000 more than in 2018 and a clear indicator that interest in the highest academic award is unbroken, such as FrankenPost

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 even an increase of 8.1 percent, which underlines the attractiveness of Thuringian universities and shows that something is happening here.

popular subjects and universities

The distribution of the doctoral students shows a clear preference for certain disciplines. 1,652 people in the field of mathematics and natural sciences, including 446 in biology and 395 in chemistry, strive for their doctorate. In the area of human medicine there are 1,465, with 1.306 working in medicine.

gender distribution and internationality

The gender distribution among the doctoral students is remarkable: As of the date of December 1, 2024, the proportion of women was 48.9 percent, which corresponds to 3,108 people. Among the international doctoral students, the proportion of women is even 47.3 percent, which shows that women from abroad also take the step to promotion. A total of 28.1 percent of the doctoral students come from abroad, which is around 1,786. Academics informs that the proportion of women between the federal states fluctuates heavily and is over 50 percent in the city-states and in Schleswig-Holstein.

The trend towards promotion can therefore be observed not only in Thuringia, but probably also nationwide. In North Rhine-Westphalia, for example, 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 will continue to be an attraction for academics.