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Everything Concerning Your Doctorate

The decision to gain one’s doctorate poses a lot of questions and necessitates a lot of decisions. The GGS offers comprehensive support and will enable you to start with your doctorate.

 

On this page you will find important information concerning the topic “Dissertation“. A good first overview can be gleaned from the “Recommendations for Doctoral Students”, offered by the Quality Circle Dissertation (Qualitätszirkel Promotion). You can download the manual by clicking on the adjoining picture. Should you have further questions, please contact us by filling in our form (German)for an individual counselling session.

 

 

Cooperative Doctorate

 

Forschungscampus Mittelhessen

 

If you, as a graduate of the THM or another university, are planning to pursue an academic career or if you would like to acquire further scientific qualifications, then a cooperative doctorate is your way to go!
When doing a cooperative doctorate, your doctorate project is jointly supervised by at least two members of two different universities. In Central Hesse you can earn your cooperative doctorate under optimal conditions via the Research Campus of Central Hesse (Forschungscampus Mittelhessen) at its member universities – the Technical University of Central Hesse, the Justus Liebig University Giessen or at the Philipps University Marburg.
The Cooperative Doctorate Platform of the Research Campus of Central Hesse (RCCH) is your contact point and advice centre. Here, you will receive further information concerning a cooperative doctorate, from admission requirements to career management.

 

Binational Doctorate (Cotutelle)

 

In the case of a binational doctorate, one earns a doctoral degree which is jointly awarded by two universities in different countries. This means that the doctoral student and his or her thesis are supervised at both universities and he/she earns his/her degree in both places in an often integrated doctoral examination procedure.

Usually, the binational doctorate is regulated in an individual agreement of both participating universities. Thus, an individual cooperation contract is concluded for each binational doctorate.

Normally, this contract also regulates how much time the doctoral student has to spend (at least) at the foreign and his or her home university. At both universities, the doctoral student has at least one supervisor who has granted their supervision for the whole duration of the doctoral process.

 

When is it advisable to choose a binational doctorate and when is it not?

A Cotutelle process should be chosen by supervisors and doctoral students if the doctoral students want to ensure their scientific connection with both participating countries.

Good reasons for a Cotutelle are given if

  • a doctoral student wants to ensure an international orientation of his or her career,
  • the dissertation’s topic has an international research component in both countries,
  • the dissertation’s topic touches on the research interest of the foreign university or if the partner university contributes an added value to the topic.

Good reasons against a Cotutelle are given if

  • the doctoral student is not willing to spend a greater amount of time (one longer or a number of shorter stays of, in most cases, around 1 year in total) at the foreign university,
  • the necessary agreements of both supervisors cannot be ensured,
  • only a shorter visit abroad is necessary which may also be made within the frame of a national process.

You can find further information as well as the formal framework conditions for a binational doctorate in the JLU’s constitution for binational doctorate processes.

 

You are interested in a binational doctorate? We are looking forward to giving you advice. Sign up for a consultation or give us a call. 

 

Doctorate Test

 

Whether you decide for or against a doctorate – the decision should always be individual. In order to assist in this, academics.de, in cooperation with the Institute of Psychology of the Ruprecht Karls University Heidelberg, has created a test to see in how far you have doctorate-relevant qualities and qualifications. In addition, you will learn which form of doctorate is the right one for you – the traditional doctorate or one in the framework of a structured programme.

 

Means of Funding

 

Basically, there are three different ways of financing a doctorate:

1. Jobs at the university

 

2. Funding through scholarships

 

3. Doing your doctorate externally or avocationally

 

Supervision Agreement

A supervision agreement serves to help in supervising and supporting the doctoral student by explicitly stipulating the rights and duties of both the doctoral student and his or her supervisor. The mutual rights and duties are, amongst others, derived from the doctoral regulations of the respective faculty of the Justus Liebig University Giessen and can be complemented by individual regulations.

By signing the agreement, both the doctoral student and his or her supervisor commit themselves to adhering to the principles for safeguarding good scientific practice as laid down by the DFG and the guidelines of Justus Liebig University’s constitution for safeguarding good scientific practice in their latest version, respectively.

 

The template for a supervision agreement can be downloaded here.

 

Informational Event "Ways Into Earning One’s Doctoral Degree"

 

In order to smooth the way for future doctoral students into beginning their dissertation and in order to interest others in writing their dissertation, the three Giessen graduate centres GGS, GGK/GCSC, GGL, the initiative ArbeiterKind.de as well as the Research Campus of Central Hesse (RCCH) invite students of all faculties to their annual presentation “Ways into Earning One’s Doctoral Degree“.

Information on the past and the coming event can be found here.