PhD

The university degree is an important criterion to place applicants into the appropriate TVöD wage group – with the degrees awarded in Germany as decisive reference. Foreign degrees must therefore be checked to verify which German degree they correspond to. In this context, there will be an important procedural change from 2022 onwards:

The German Central Office for Foreign Education (Zentralstelle für ausländisches Bildungswesen – ZAB) is changing its assessment procedure for foreign university degrees effective Jan. 1, 2022. So far, as a public employer, we frequently used the option to obtain an authority report to assess the equivalence of foreign university degrees with the German ones. This option will not be available any more. As of 2022, only private individuals themselves can apply for a certificate evaluation at ZAB, via the following link. Note that the processing time can be up to three months, and there is a charge of 200 euros for the certificate evaluation, payable by the applicant.

For the application and hiring process, this means the following:

For applicants who are considered for a vacant position at FBH we will first try to obtain the information required for the classification of foreign degrees via the generally available database "anabin". This is handled by our administration and the applicants do not need to take actions themselves. However, in cases when this is not possible or the information in the database is not sufficient for the decision, we will contact the applicant, who must then submit the application to ZAB himself/herself and also bear the cost.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.