In accordance with the Rhineland Palatinate Higher Education Act, all doctoral candidates are required to register.
Registered doctoral students receive access to specific services and opportunities for participation (e.g. a doctoral student account, various offers from the General Postgraduate Program, voting rights and eligibility for doctoral student representation), as well as the chance to apply for full membership of the GSHS.
To do this you must complete the online doctoral candidate application form on the JOGU-StINE student portal. The completed form must then be printed out and signed by your supervisor before being submitted to your faculty, school or academy. Once your application has been accepted, you will receive notification of such from your faculty. This can then be used to apply for full membership of the GSHS.
Further information on registration is available here
What status do I have as a registered doctoral student?
As a registered doctoral student, you will be eligible for election to, and entitled to vote for the doctoral students’ representation body PhD Representatives JGU, which participates in an advisory capacity on a number of university committees. However, doctoral students do not belong to the voting groups within academic self-government. Registration as such confers neither employee nor student status, nor does it confer membership status at the university.
Though enrolment as a doctoral student is voluntary, it is recommended by the GSHS. This confers student status at the JGU along with all the rights and obligations of a student with respect to the university (and the student union).
In terms of social security law, however, enrolled doctoral students are sometimes treated differently from students in bachelor’s/master’s degree programmes, for example. Even if you are enrolled as a doctoral student, you are not entitled to the student rate for statutory or private health insurance. If you are not insured by an employer or a spouse, but instead are financed by a scholarship, self-employment or private funds, you can expect to have significantly higher health insurance contributions as a doctoral student.