Introducing the University of Würzburg Graduate Schools

Min-Kyung Kim comes from South Korea. She is pursuing her doctorate at the Graduate School of the Humanities in the section “Education and Culture”. Her doctoral thesis is on “Philosophising with children and its significance for intercultural learning”.

“Elocution, rhetoric or creative writing: these workshops for doctoral students make the Graduate School special. They are not only useful and necessary at the university but for our later careers. The workshops make us aware of our strengths and weaknesses and give new impetus to develop important skills alongside our academic research. They also give us an opportunity to exchange ideas. The Graduate School of the Humanities also offers workshops on analysis and methodology, interdisciplinary cooperation, academic writing and scientific conduct. Our Graduate School consists of four sections: “Education and Culture“, “Philosophy, Languages and the Arts“, “The Middle Ages and the Renaissance“, and “Antiquity, History and Religion“, so that the subjects of our theses can be interdisciplinary.”

Rajaraman Gnana Oli from India is about to complete his PhD at the Graduate School of Life Sciences (GSLS). His thesis project: “Oxidative Stress – Role in Genomic Damage and Diseases” with Prof. Dr. Helga Stopper.

“It was pretty easy to settle in the GSLS. When I arrived in Würzburg, the GSLS arranged a guide for me to help with registration at the university, health insurance, opening a bank account and getting a residence permit at the city hall. This was an immense help. There are plenty of opportunities to meet international fellow students and visiting scientist. For example, the GSLS supported club run at the university guest house helped me to find Indian students and get moral support at first. Moreover, the club arranged every other week visits to German historical places to learn about the culture. I really enjoyed every trip. At the same time, I enjoyed the Indian cultural events which are supported by the GSLS and arranged by Würzburg Indian Society. I also enjoyed the social activities with my German colleagues according to their local traditions. At my working group, we had a good proportion of international students and the group is headed by a multicultural person, which both ensured a comfortable research environment. Overall, I greatly express my gratitude to the GSLS, making me successful, not just as a graduate student but as a scientist.”

Great place to start a scientific career

The University of Würzburg is one of the leading international universities in many research fields, such as Medicine, Biology, Psychology, Physics or Chemistry. “Würzburg is a great place to start a scientific career,” says Dr Stephan Schröder-Köhne, head of the University of Würzburg Graduate Schools Office, “and we attract top doctoral students from all over the world.”

Four Graduate Schools

There are four Graduate Schools at the University of Würzburg. The largest one is the Graduate School of Life Sciences with some 300 doctoral students. It is funded by the “Excellence Initiative” of the German federal and state governments.

In addition, there are three other Graduate Schools in the fields of the Humanities, of Science and Technology and of Law, Economics and Society. Altogether, about 450 doctoral students are enrolled in the four Graduate Schools. About 30 per cent of them are from outside Germany.

What is special about the Graduate Schools? The traditional PhD is organised in a master-apprentice relationship: a doctoral student works on an academic project, supervised by a single professor. At a Graduate School, the doctoral students are integrated into a wider context: In Würzburg each doctoral student has three experienced academic mentors who give their support.

At the same time, the young academics belong to a peer group of about 15-20 postgraduate researchers working on related topics. In the peer groups, the young researchers exchange ideas at regular meetings and they attend seminars, lectures and retreats together.

There are also opportunities to acquire transferable skills, useful for careers outside the University. There are more than 45 such courses every year covering subjects such as writing grant applications, presentation skills or intellectual property law.

Internationalisation is essential

Internationalisation in academia is essential. That is why the Graduate Schools strongly encourage their doctoral students to be active at an international level. “We expect them to find out what is going on in the global scientific community and to join networks, by taking part in international conferences, for example”, Schröder-Köhne points out.

Improving intercultural skills

Students also improve their intercultural skills. Here, the Graduate Schools cooperate with the University project “Global Systems and Intercultural Competence”. International doctoral students who want to learn German can do so in courses organised by the University Language Centre. “We encourage them to learn German,“ Schröder-Köhne emphasises. “We would like them to feel at home and to become integrated more easily outside the University as well.”

www.graduateschools.uni-wuerzburg.de