Programme

The Graduate Programme comprises a three-year course of training, where each stage begins in October of a given year. The primary focus of the programme is on the students’ independent work on their dissertations. In addition, in the first year of the programme, all doctoral students are required to take part in an interdisciplinary introductory course on the unifying theme of the Cluster and to take courses on methodology and research design. In the second year, additional courses on methodology, theory and key skills will be offered, depending on the specific needs and preferences of the doctoral candidates. At the same time, doctoral students within the IGP will benefit from the facilities offered by the partner institutions of the Cluster, including courses which can be offered jointly with participating institutions, and from the option of research visits abroad at our partner universities. For further information on the structure of the Programme, see Curriculum and Admission.

An essential element of the Graduate Programme is an ambitious and innovative approach to the supervision of the doctoral students. All doctoral students are supervised by teams comprising three persons, at least one of whom is a PI, one a professor at the University of Frankfurt and one from a different field, where at least two of the supervisors are professors. On admission to the Graduate Programme, each doctoral candidate enters into a supervision agreement with his or her teams of supervisors in which the rights and duties of the candidate and the supervisors are laid down. Among the issues addressed are the topic of the dissertation, an agreement on benchmarks, a progress schedule to be established by consultation at the end of the first year and the details of the supervision. Doctoral candidates are entitled to regular detailed discussions of their dissertation projects with their team of supervisors, in addition to mentoring and career advancement.