For professorships & doctoral programmes

Doctoral enquiries that arrive complete

A structured application form for prospective doctoral candidates: proposal upload, supervision request, funding plan — required fields enforce completeness before a single follow-up question is needed.

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0 Rückfragen about missing documents — required fields do the chasing for you

The daily reality of doctoral enquiries

Unstructured e-mails without substance

"Dear Professor, I am interested in pursuing a doctorate with you" — no proposal, no topic idea, no CV. Every reply costs time even though the enquiry cannot be assessed yet.

The same follow-ups on repeat

Is there a proposal? How is funding envisaged — scholarship, position, external? Which degree do you hold? The office writes these questions dozens of times per semester — then waits weeks for answers.

No overview of the enquiry pile

Enquiries scatter across the inboxes of professor, office and research staff. Who got a reply, who is waiting, who sent documents later? Serious candidates drown in the same pile as bulk applications.

How Questee structures the inflow

  1. 1

    Define your requirements once

    Required fields for proposal upload, degree and grade, supervision request (primary/secondary), funding plan and time horizon. The link replaces the "please enquire by e-mail" line on your chair's website.

  2. 2

    Candidates submit complete dossiers

    The form walks candidates through every requirement — in German or English. Without a proposal and funding details it cannot be submitted. Serious candidates invest the 20 minutes; bulk e-mailers filter themselves out.

  3. 3

    Decide on a complete basis

    Every enquiry arrives complete and uniform: proposal attached, funding clarified, timeline stated. Professor and research staff review together in the results area — and reply only where it is worthwhile.

Built for academic selection

Mandatory proposal upload

Proposal, CV and transcripts as separate required uploads — no enquiry without substance.

Structured funding questions

Scholarship, budgeted position, third-party funds or external — as a selection field instead of vague hope in a cover letter.

Conditional logic

Choosing "scholarship planned" triggers follow-up questions on the foundation and application status.

Multilingual DE/EN

International candidates complete the same form in English — one dataset, one review.

Save & resume

A well-thought-out proposal is not written in one sitting — applicants can pause and resume.

Hosted in Germany + DPA

Research ideas and applicant data stay GDPR-compliant on German servers — with an Art. 28 DPA.

Smaller than any graduate portal

Free to try (3 forms, 100 responses/month). Pro at €12/mo (€9/mo annually) with unlimited forms and your chair's branding — payable from petty cash, not the IT budget.

Free

3 forms, 250 responses/month

Pro

Unlimited, 10,000 responses/month, AI included

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Questions from professors and research staff

Are proposals and applicant data safe with you?
Yes — proposals are unpublished research ideas and deserve particular protection. Questee hosts exclusively in Germany, transfers encrypted, stores tenant-isolated and provides the Art. 28 GDPR DPA. There is no data transfer to US providers — unlike Google Forms or Typeform.
We have a graduate school — why another form?
The graduate school portal usually only kicks in at formal admission. The phase before — first contact, proposal review, supervision commitment — runs by e-mail at most chairs. The form fills exactly that gap: it structures the pre-selection, while formal registration continues through the graduate school as usual.
Does a form deter serious candidates?
Experience suggests the opposite: a clear process signals that enquiries are actually read and answered — better than an e-mail that dies in an inbox. Anyone deterred by 20 minutes of structured input would not have reached the proposal stage anyway. The form is a seriousness filter, not an obstacle.
What should we ask for?
A proven set: proposal (upload, 5-15 pages), CV, degree with grade, intended start, funding plan, preferred supervision arrangement, and why this particular chair fits academically. With AI generation you draft the form in 30 seconds and adapt it to your field's conventions.
Can several people review the enquiries?
Yes — professor, office and supervising research staff work in the same workspace and see the same state. No more forwarding e-mails, no one reviewing an outdated version. You jointly track who has been answered and who is still open.
Why not just a fillable PDF?
Fillable PDFs come back as attachments — and you are back to the e-mail pile: not searchable, not analysable, uploads dangling separately. An online form validates required fields instantly, receives the proposal directly and stores everything structured. The difference shows at enquiry twenty, not enquiry one.
How long may we keep data of rejected candidates?
Only as long as the process requires — after that GDPR storage limitation applies. In Questee you permanently delete individual submissions or entire processes in a few clicks. For the exact retention period, a quick word with your university's data protection officer is worthwhile.

Never chase a proposal by e-mail again

Set up the form, link it from your chair's page, receive complete doctoral enquiries. Start free.

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