You want to actively help shape the university? Then get involved!
From June 24 to July 3, 2025, the committee elections at the University of Stuttgart will take place once again. This is your chance to give doctoral researchers a strong voice. If you want to represent your interests and help make the university a better place for PhD students, then consider running for election!
Below, you’ll find all the important information about the individual committees and the election process. Still unsure whether or how to run? Not quite familiar with the structures yet? Then join our info session – a great chance to get to know us too!
Meeting with more information concerning the 2025 elections
Convinced and want to run for election? Then get in touch with one of the list coordinators:
General information about the election
What is being elected?
In the committee elections, the Senate and the major faculty councils or member assemblies of the excellence clusters are elected. Doctoral researchers have 2 seats in the Senate and 3 seats in each of the faculty councils.
Other committees, such as Senate committees, are not filled through the committee elections but are appointed by the deciding body (for Senate committees, the Senate) in a meeting by the elected committee members.
Why should I take part?
If you generally want to get involved with doctoral candidates at the university or want to get more involved at the university in general, then DoKUS and the university committees are the right place for you! Among other things, involvement in the committees enables you to
- Co-determination of the doctoral regulations (rights and obligations of doctoral candidates)
- Shaping the offers for doctoral candidates (e.g. further education, advice, support, …)
- Participation in the working conditions of doctoral candidates (e.g. working hours, location, …)
- Privileged insights into various fields of activity (e.g. university and science management, human resources, …)
- Exchange with doctoral candidates from other departments or universities
The fact that the status group of doctoral candidates is firmly anchored in the university bodies means that even with a small time commitment as a doctoral candidate, a lot can be achieved!
How long does a term of office last?
The terms of office of the elected representatives begin on October 1 and end on September 30 of the following year, i.e. the terms of office are 1 year each, as for the student representatives.
How much time does it cost me to be a member of one of the committees?
That depends on the committee. First of all: meetings take place at most once a month and usually only during the lecture period.
The Senate usually meets in November, December, January, February, May, June and July. This makes a total of 7 meetings per year. Theoretically, an extraordinary meeting may also be necessary, for example during the semester break. However, this is relatively rare. The meetings themselves take place on Wednesday afternoons in the Senate Hall on the Stadtmitte campus. They usually start at 2:30 p.m. and last two to three hours. There is also a bit of preparation time to look at the documents before the respective meeting.
The faculty councils usually take place in October, November, December, January, April, May and June. This means that there are also 7 meetings per year. These meetings also take place on Wednesday afternoons at 2:30 p.m. The location of the meeting depends on the respective faculty. Faculty Council meetings usually have a shorter agenda than the Senate, so they normally last about one and a half to two hours and usually require a little less time to go through the documents beforehand in preparation.
In addition, there should be a representatives’ meeting approximately once a semester, at which all elected committee members of our status group meet so that we can discuss current issues across faculties.
Who can elect the doctoral student representatives?
Anyone who belongs to the status group of doctoral candidates can take part in the committee elections for our status group. While all accepted doctoral candidates automatically belong to DoKUS, membership of the status group, which is decisive for the elections, depends on several factors. Basically, a distinction must be made between three groups of doctoral students for the purposes of allocation:
- Doctoral students enrolled as doctoral students who have no or only a non-full-time employment relationship (i.e. an employment contract of less than 50%) with the University of Stuttgart
- doctoral candidates enrolled as doctoral students who are also employed full-time at the University of Stuttgart (i.e. have an employment contract of 50% or more)
- non-registered doctoral candidates, which according to the doctoral regulations of February 2019 can only be doctoral candidates who are employed full-time at the University of Stuttgart. Of course, there are still numerous doctoral candidates from the previous doctoral regulations who are not employed full-time but are also not enrolled (e.g. purely industrial doctorates). These cannot be assigned to a status group.
While the assignment of group 1 (doctoral candidates) and group 3 (usually academic staff, sometimes no status group in “old cases” from previous doctoral regulations) is very simple, the division into doctoral candidates and academic staff for group 2 is somewhat more complex. According to the electoral regulations, these doctoral candidates are initially randomly assigned in equal numbers to doctoral candidates or academic staff. The background to this is that it is very difficult to judge from the outside whether doctoral candidates in this group see themselves more as members of the academic staff (e.g. because of their duties) or as members of the doctoral candidates (e.g. because of their doctorate). This random assignment can be changed until the electoral roll is completed if you feel that you belong to the other group. A change of affiliation can be explained by e-mail to wahlleitung@verwaltung.uni-stuttgart.de.
Incidentally, there is one exception to this random allocation: anyone who stands as a candidate for the doctoral candidates or the academic staff will automatically exercise their right to vote in the same status group. However, there is one restriction: as the academic mid-level staff do not vote every year, but every two years, it is only possible to switch from the mid-level staff to the status group of doctoral candidates in the interim years if you did not explicitly switch to the academic staff group in the previous election.
Who can stand for election as a doctoral student representative?
All enrolled doctoral candidates can run for committee positions in our status group, unless they have explicitly declared to the university that they wish to belong to the academic staff status group.
More information
The official announcement of the elections can be found on the university website (Announcement No. 08/25).