An institute in Bergisch Gladbach, the Institut für Wissenschaftsberatung, arranged doctoral supervisors for paying clients. The clients usually paid about 20,000 euros. The institute paid professors to accept them as doctoral candidates. In July 2008 the regional court of Hildesheim convicted the institute’s managing partner of bribery in 61 cases. It sentenced him to three years and six months in prison. In 2009 the Federal Court of Justice rejected his appeal. In the same year, prosecutors in Cologne investigated about 90 professors from across Germany. In 2014 Ramona Schürmann of the German Centre for Higher Education Research explained in the taz why people pay. “Der Titel dient aber als Türöffner oder Chancenverbesserer.” The title serves as a door-opener, or as a way to improve one’s chances. In medicine, it often helps a doctor get a senior physician’s post.