Dr .de  22.5.11

In Germany, there appears to be a hidden, implicit, rarely outspoken two-track system:

  1. the show-off doctorate with little scientific value and
  2. the real scientific doctorate based on dissertations that actually contribute to scientific knowledge.

The show-off doctorate is the product of the high social value of a doctorate in Germany, incompetence, co-optation or naiveté (in dubio pro latter) of supervisors and university bodies conferring doctorates, combined with some trickery of eager climbers. […]