General Objective
The European PhDnet “Literary and Cultural Studies” offers a clearly internationally oriented research and training program in the field of literary and cultural studies, the curriculum of which is jointly managed by the participating partner institutions.
In order to guarantee our doctoral students optimal conditions for working on their doctoral projects, this program builds on the experience we have already gained here at JLU with the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC) and the International Doctoral Program “Literary and Cultural Studies” (IPP). In close cooperation with our international partner institutions, we have further improved our research program in line with the objectives of the European PhDnet.
In this way, the PhDnet can
- offer joint doctoral supervision at two international partner institutions and award binational degrees in accordance with the Cotutelle Agreement;
- offer a highly structured and internationally oriented curriculum that is jointly organized by the participating partner institutions and tailored to the specific needs of (international) doctoral candidates;
- introduce its doctoral candidates to national and international research contexts and facilitate the arrival of international doctoral candidates in the German research landscape;
- familiarize doctoral students with the latest theories, methods, approaches and concepts in the field of literary and cultural studies;
- guarantee a high academic quality of the resulting dissertations and at the same time reduce the time required for successful completion;
- support independent research from the outset: by promoting publication and conference experience at home and abroad;
- offer ample opportunities to acquire academic and practice-oriented qualifications. This is done in cooperation with the GCSC Teaching Center and the GGK/GCSC Career Service, which offer university didactic training and other practice- and career-oriented workshops.
What is a Cotutelle and how to obtain it?
The Bologna process and the general internationalisation of the Higher Education sector will contribute to the Cotutelle’s rising importance. Within structured PhD programmes, Cotutelles are becoming an important factor in establishing collaboration between Graduate Centres. Cotutelles thus constitute a valuable contribution to the internationalisation of PhD programmes.
The universities share supervision and examination responsibilities and recognize course requirements and examinations that have been completed at the partner institution.
Cotutelles offer great advantages for doctoral researchers
- who aim at establishing and assuring professional connections to both countries,
- who have not yet decided on which country they would like to work in,
- who plan on embarking on careers in international contexts,
- whose research is closely connected to another country.
Supervision by a professor in Germany and at a partner university abroad enables doctoral researchers to closely engage with the respective research cultures and Higher Education systems. Hence, they gain further transferable skills, which stretch far beyond improved foreign language abilities and intercultural competences. We expect transnational PhD programmes to open up new career opportunities to graduates.