The largest number of doctoral candidates in Germany is qualifying at Heidelberg University. This has been announced by the Federal Statistical Office (Wiesbaden). Last year there were 8,600 doctoral candidates at Ruperto Carola, followed by 8,400 at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and 7,300 at Technical University of Munich. These three universities consequently account for 13 per cent of all doctoral candidates in Germany.

In 2020, a total of 192,300 candidates were working on a doctorate at German universities – 53 per cent men and 47 per cent women. A good fifth, i.e. 22 per cent (43,200) did not have German nationality. According to the Federal Statistical Office, almost all doctoral candidates were supervised by professors at universities, and only one percent at colleges of art, colleges of theology, universities of education and universities of applied sciences.

The figures on the number of current doctoral candidates stem from a new statistic introduced in 2017, covering all individuals working on a doctorate at a university in Germany.