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In the future, Aalen University Professors will be able to independently lead doctoral candidates in pursuing a Doctoral degree. Photo: © Hochschule Aalen | Jan Walford

Yesterday, the state parliament's Science Committee approved the legal ordinance granting the right to award doctorates to the Baden-Württemberg Doctoral Association of Universities of Applied Sciences. After publication of the ordinance in the law gazette in a few days, the final hurdle to the right to award doctorates will be cleared. Aalen University is a member of the already founded HAW doctoral association of Baden-Württemberg and is represented in the Doctoral Center with 25 founding members. This opens up new opportunities for academic staff at Aalen University to be guided to a doctorate under the responsibility of a professor from their own university.

The universities of applied sciences (HAW) in Baden-Württemberg have reason to celebrate: their efforts over the past ten years to obtain an independent right to award doctorates for their type of university have paid off. Yesterday, Science Minister Theresia Bauer and the chairman of the HAW Doctoral Association, Prof. Dr. Volker Reuter of the Ulm University of Technology, signed the decisive document after the state parliament's Science Committee approved the ordinance. Having been responsibility for research on the board of the parent organization of all HAW in the state for many years, the former President of Aalen University, Prof. Dr. Gerhard Schneider, played a significant role in the now successful granting of the right to award doctorates.

The core element of the new HAW Doctoral Association is the Doctoral Center: professors from different disciplines who can prove that they are actively engaged in research by means of scientific publications and funding obtained for research projects can apply here. This is to ensure that only those professors who are strong in research will be allowed to supervise doctoral students independently. Aalen University has 25 founding members of the Doctoral Center, more than any other university in Baden-Württemberg. "The research performance at universities of applied sciences, which has continuously increased in recent years, is honored in a special way by the award of the right to confer doctoral degrees," says a pleased Prof. Dr. Harald Riegel, President of the university. The fact that 25 professors of the university have been involved in the Doctoral Center from the very beginning proves once again that research in Aalen is a central profile element and flagship of the university.

Attractiveness of the university grows

Prof. Dr. Volker Knoblauch, Vice-President for Research, agrees: "The possibility of being able to independently guide doctoral candidates to their degree in the future increases our attractiveness enormously in the competition for the best young scientists, but also for new highly qualified professors." Theresia Bauer, the still acting Minister for Science, Research and the Arts, is also convinced that many young people will benefit from the new right to award doctorates and that the universities involved will be further strengthened in their scientific work. The right to award doctorates for the HAW Association will initially be granted for a limited period until 2029: A decision on the extension will be made in the course of an assessment.