The Graduate School Scholarship Program (GSSP) of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) is offering six Scholarships for Doctoral Studies (October 2025 – September 2029) in the Doctoral Program of the Berlin Graduate School of Ancient Studies (BerGSAS):

2 Scholarships in the Doctoral Program "Landscape Archaeology and Architecture"
2 Scholarships in the Doctoral Program "Ancient Objects and Visual Studies"
2 Scholarships in the Doctoral Program "Ancient Languages and Texts"

Who can apply?

• The call is open ONLY to applicants who are not German citizens
• Applicants must not have completed a PhD previously
• The MA degree must not have been completed before March 1, 2019
• Applicants must not have resided in Germany continuously before December 1, 2023

Duration of the scholarship and funding

The doctoral scholarship is available from October 2025 (winter semester 2025/26) for four years, subject to a satisfactory annual progress review. In accordance with DAAD guidelines, the scholarship holders receive a stipend of 1,300 Euros a month, a travel allowance, payments towards health, accident and liability insurance cover, allowances for study and research (and, where applicable, rent and family allowances) as well as financial support for a pre-sessional German language course. Plus, material resources and supervision allowance of 1,000 Euros per year, administered by the BerGSAS.

Application documents

Your application documents: If registered at BerGSAS application portal, you will find at the bottom of the form the list of the required documents. This includes among other things copies of various documents (which do not have to be officially certified!).

• Certificate of a language examination in English e.g, IELTS Academic or TOEFL, at least B2 level. Please note: At the Freie Universität, a C1 certificate is required for admission to doctoral studies.
• Certificates of any academic degree (B.A. and M.A.) or advanced qualifications indicating grades and explaining the grading system of your home university.

Two letters of reference: Two letters of reference from university professors are required, one of which must be from a professor at your home university! These letters are confidential documents and should be sent as a PDF file by the university professors directly to the coordinator of the doctoral program (see CfA)

It is mandatory that the professors use the DAAD template, which can be downloaded here

Application process & deadline: Applications must be submitted via the BerGSAS portal (check the reference in the CfA) The deadline for your application is November 1, 2024 at 00:00 CEWT. The selection committee will not consider incomplete or late applications. More details on the objectives of the doctoral programs, the application procedure, etc. can be found in the CfA.

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Study places (without funding)

The Berlin Graduate School of Ancient Studies (BerGSAS) accepts applications for both winter and summer admissions for all five doctoral programs. The starting date for doctoral studies in the summer semester is the first of April – for the winter semester, the starting date is the first of October.

If you would like to apply for summer admission, please you submit your application materials by September 30 of the preceding year.

If you wish to apply for winter admission, we request that you submit your application materials by April 30 in the year you wish to start.

Prospective doctoral students apply for one of our five doctoral programs. Each of the programs has its own curriculum, which takes six semesters to complete. In the course of their doctoral studies, doctoral students have the opportunity to spend a semester at one of our partner universities – Harvard University, the University of Michigan, the University of Oxford or Princeton University – and can receive financial support for that purpose.

Minimum requirements for applicants

• Completion of a master’s degree with a very good result in a field of ancient studies or a closely related discipline, e.g. prehistory, classical or Near Eastern archaeology, Egyptology, ancient Near Eastern studies, physical geography, ancient history, medieval history, religious studies, philosophy and the history of knowledge, theology, art history, classics, Byzantine studies, Iranian studies.

• When you submit your application, you must be able to prove that you have a way of financing the three-year course of doctoral studies or at least show that you have submitted a request for the funding of your doctoral project to a third party.