The convent
Since 2015, the Baden-Württemberg State Higher Education Act has provided for the establishment of a convent of accepted doctoral candidates in order to strengthen the co-determination rights of doctoral candidates at universities. DoKUS is the representative body for doctoral candidates at the University of Stuttgart. According to the State Higher Education Act, all accepted doctoral candidates at the university belong to the convention and are entitled to vote at convention meetings. Since the introduction of the new status group for doctoral candidates in April 2018, the convention has been responsible not only for representing the general interests of doctoral candidates in accordance with the LHG, but also for administering and disbursing the funds collected from doctoral students’ student union contributions.
In practice, the convent at the University of Stuttgart is an association of doctoral students from various departments who represent the interests of doctoral students at our university. We are officially represented vis-à-vis the university by an executive committee elected from among the members of the convent during a meeting.
The status group of doctoral candidate
With the amendment of the State Higher Education Act in April 2018, the state government of Baden-Württemberg was the first in Germany to take the step towards independent doctoral student representation in academic self-administration, placing it on an equal footing with the previously established status groups.