Our current students come from diverse backgrounds; in the most recent cohort, we have students with previous degrees in Biostatistics, Epidemiology, Public Health, Psychology, Mathematics, Philosophy, and Health Economics.

Most medical and dental degree programs do not have enough methods-focused coursework in the domains of Health Data Sciences to sufficiently meet our requirement for relevant prior coursework. If you have studied medicine/dentistry and have also completed extensive methodological coursework outside of your clinical studies, you may be a suitable applicant.

While strongly related to the Public Health field, this PhD program focuses on Health Data Sciences and our students’ coursework and projects are rooted in the domains of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, Population Health Science, Public Health, Meta-Research and Medical Informatics. There is another doctoral degree in Berlin offered by the Technical University (Dr. PH) that might be a better fit if these are your interests. See: https://www.mig.tu-berlin.de/menue/teaching/promotion/parameter/en/

Our students come from a variety of international backgrounds. For the HDS PhD Program, it is not mandatory that you speak, read or write German. However, these skills are very helpful in daily life as well as scientific collaborations; therefore, we strongly recommend German language lessons for successful applicants without German language skills.

The official language of instruction of the Health Data Sciences PhD Program is English. Therefore, the absence of strong language proficiency in (scientific) reading, writing and/or speaking will make it very difficult for the student to complete HDS PhD program coursework and their final cumulative research dissertation (in English). For this reason, we require no less than a B2 level English language proficiency based on the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). 

Please see the detailed list of accepted proof of language skills other than TOEFL or IELTS. Important for many HDS applicants: if you had multiple English language courses during your university studies (at least 20 credit points), this also fulfills the requirement. If you believe you fulfill this requirement by other means you can demonstrate, the HDS PhD Board will decide on a case-by-case basis. We encourage candidates to contact us early if this is a concern, so there is enough time to provide additional language proficiency documentation if their primary documentation is deemed insufficient.

Yes! If you earned 20 ECTS (or equivalent) through courses taking place in English at a state or state-recognized university you will have enough to prove English language proficiency.

International applicants may apply to be considered for one of two three-year scholarships provided by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) through the HDS PhD Program as part of the Graduate School Scholarship Program (GSSP). Please click here for more information about the DAAD GSSP scholarship. Since this scholarship opportunity is expected to be competitive, international applicants are encouraged to explore additional funding opportunities from national and international foundations. The DAAD scholarship database may be useful:

https://www2.daad.de/deutschland/stipendium/datenbank/en/21148-scholarship-database/?detail=50076777

Though some students have scholarships, most of our current HDS PhD students are employed in part-time (e.g. 65%) research positions. Ideally, most/all work on your PhD projects should count as work time for your employment. Your employer should be willing to support your participation in required HDS courses and help facilitate you sticking to your three-year project timeline. Should your employment be full-time, this support and flexibility is especially important.

It is important to separate the three issues: funding, data access, and supervision. Successful applicants need to demonstrate all three and many times all three go together. There are exceptions: e.g., If someone brings their own funding, it is possible to find data and supervisors who might fit the project. This requires a really motivated individual to make all those connections, a good research question / project idea and of course, their own funding. Most of the time, the students find a job (usually 65% paid) as a PhD student at the institute of their main supervisor.

In general, yes, it is possible. However, our program does have specific presence requirements for the required courses in the first through third semesters. If you would like to travel during the PhD program, we recommend doing so during semester breaks or in the fourth through sixth semesters. We do not currently have formal exchange programs under the HDS PhD Program, however, the Charité does support international research exchange, and many HDS instructors and supervisors have large international networks and can help advise you.

The HDS PhD program has several courses which require regular attendance, especially in the first three semesters. Unless weekly travel to Berlin is realistic for you, it will not be possible for you to participate in the HDS PhD program remotely. We strongly encourage all prospective students to relocate to the Berlin area if accepted to the program.