Doctoral Program

The graduate program’s curriculum is designed to provide doctoral students with the skills required to conduct independent research within the EBE paradigm, to expose them to state-of-the-art research and to bring them into contact with outstanding international scholars early on in their career.

The first year of the program is devoted to acquiring the necessary methodological competence needed to conduct research in the field of EBE and to develop first research ideas. During this time all students will devote a large share of their time to attend courses and to participate in summer schools.

The second year of the program is then focused on defining and developing a research agenda. The course program during this phase is geared towards defining and implementing research projects.

The third and fourth years of the program are devoted to writing and finishing the thesis. Towards the end of the third year, graduate program students will organize a multi-day conference at which they and students from partner universities present and discuss their work. This “Jamboree” provides an excellent opportunity to get international exposure, meet peers and start joint projects.

Doctoral degree: Students will receive the doctoral degree from the university where her or his main doctoral adviser is based (Dr.oec.publ or Dr.rer.pol.) The respective universities accept the qualifications earned in the course of the graduate program as sufficient for their respective doctoral regulations.

All throughout the graduate program students are encouraged to:

• Develop soft skills and key competences;
• Attend international conferences and workshops to present and discuss their research,
• Build strong personal networks with top researchers from all over the world via the program’s national and international network
• Spend a research exchange at an internationally renowned university.