We will occasionally admit visiting students from partner institutions and/or funded by external scholarships who may study at the GEAS from several months up to one or two years if they receive permission.

If you want to become a visiting student, the same conditions as stated in the guidelines will apply, and we will need all documents listed for general applications. If you only want to stay for several months, our conditions may differ, so please contact the associate director for specifics first:

• Are you from one of our partnering institutions?
• Is your supervisor in contact with the graduate school?
• How long do you want to stay?
• Will you get permission?
• Will you apply for funding/receive external funding?

Visiting students do not have to apply via the online portal, unless they want to be admitted to the general cohort with external funding.

You can apply once a year (between September and November to start in October the following year).

GEAS will announce details on its website and on East Asian Studies mailing lists and on other sites of relevance. Applications will be submitted online via the Dahlem Research School web portal. Individual applications by any kind of mail will not be considered at any time.

Please note that you need references and need to contact referees in advance before applying!

The web portal will send a mail to both of your referees after you have finished your application at the portal, and referees will upload their letters themselves.

Please make sure to contact them before applying, as referees will also need time to write a reference, and will only receive the link for upload after you have submitted your application.

We will consider your application in the selection process only when the application is complete.

Applications to GEAS will be submitted online via the internet portal by Dahlem Research School.

We expect you to write a research proposal for your dissertation project of not more than 6 pages.

Please upload original copies and English translations of your documents to be (scanned) uploaded in .pdf or .jpg (not larger than 2MB).

The list of necessary documents includes:

• CV/Resume
• High school diploma
• BA transcripts and official BA diploma/certificate (or equivalent)
• MA transcripts (transcripts should be updated if graduation is scheduled after the application period)
• official MA diploma/certificate, if applicable
• English language proficiency (C1), if at hand. Can be handed in later.
  

A screenshot of preliminary test results for TOEFL/IELTS, etc. can be uploaded. However, for successful admission to FU, you will need a paper copy of the test results, so please make sure to order one in advance.

Please note that there is no TOEFL code for the GEAS. The TOEFL code for FU Berlin should not be used.

• East Asian language proficiency (B2). Should you be a native speaker of an East Asian language, please provide prrof of a second modern language (B2).
  
• 2 Letters of reference (need to be uploaded by the referees themselves)
• Additional certificates, publications, internships, etc., if available

The research proposal is an outline of your doctoral project. The research proposal and the topic are the main part of your application, and a bad or unfocused title or a research question can be crucial for the review process. The outline of your proposed dissertation project should have a maximum of six pages and should include the following ideas. This is only an outline of what you should think about when writing your proposal.  Keep in mind that this proposal reflects your personal style as well as your research interest and potential.

Please use a common citation style and do not write more than 5,000 words. Please do not just copy and paste this outline as a framework for your research proposal in the application.

• 1. Context, research questions and objectives of your research project
  • Describe the context of your research proposal.
  • Pose a central research question you aim to answer in your thesis and explain its academic relevance.
  • Explain the hypotheses relevant to answering your question.
• 2. Current state of research and most relevant literature
  • Place your topic in the current academic debate
  • literature review
• 3. Tentative theoretical framework and research methods
  • Address the methodology and theoretical framework you want to use and explain why this framework was chosen.
  • Explain the relevant sources of information (sources, archives, interviews, databases) and explain how your fieldwork will be conducted.
• 4. Source material (6th page in general, not counting within the 5,000-word limit)
  • References and Bibliography
• 5. Time schedule (not counting within the limit)
  • A detailed schedule with milestones and fieldwork plan

This is a good question.

Structured programs are full-time programs for people who want to develop better skills in their doctorates, receive institutional support, and - if they get successful funding, also get support in planning and coordinating mobility phases from the institution. 

As part of a graduate school or research training group (or similar), early stage researchers take part in a program that differs from the traditional way in both its formal framework as well as the focus on better integration of doctoral researchers in a group and the wider academic community.

No. A structured doctoral program at Freie Universität is a full-time program with a 3-year curriculum for a 4-year procedure, and a part-time PhD is not (yet) possible in a structured program. The graduate schools are not the right programs for you.

However, there are individual PhD possibilities: Please leave this page and program and ask the Dahlem Research School for more information.

Your potential supervisor does not need to be contacted before application. The selection committee will recommend a team of supervisors for your research project based on your suggestions, your research focus, and availability of faculty members.

Candidates can apply even if they have not graduated their master’s yet. However, the predicted date of graduation should not be later than July, 1st of the year they intend to start the programme.

Applicants should be able to provide transcripts and/or statements of their supervisors about their progress to that date.

Freie Universität Berlin offers a fast-track program for highly exceptional B.A. students. To qualify, B.A. students need to provide evidence of an exceptional academic record during the B.A. program with an A grade point average (in German: 1.3 or higher, without any exception), two letters of well-known scholars, and successful completion of an entrance exam as required by the statute for PhD programs at Freie Universität Berlin.

This entrance exam is designed by the examination committee after application; we do not know the details of this exam before the application for admission to the PhD proecedure.

For GEAS, fast-track students should ideally have at least one year of experience living and studying in East Asia and have high-level language skills in one of the respective languages, according to the rules of admission to GEAS.