Forms of doctoral training Structured Doctoral Programs in Heidelberg

It is the goal of Heidelberg University to foster the establishment of elements of structured doctoral programs in all of the academic disciplines and to support the introduction and development of graduate schools, research training groups and other “structured doctoral programs”.

This corresponds to the recommendations of the German Council of Science and Humanities (2002) and the German Rector’s Conference (2003) on the professional development of young researchers.

There are currently more than 40 structured doctoral programs involving different levels and varying elements of structure at Heidelberg University. Structured programs have been established predominantly in the natural and life sciences; however, their numbers are also increasing in the humanities, social sciences and law, where the traditional model has been individual doctoral training.

There are three different forms of structured doctoral programs:

  • Graduate Schools (Graduiertenschulen) – large facilities with 150–300 doctoral candidates covering a wide range of research fields.
  • Research Training Groups (Graduiertenkollegs) – medium-sized groups with 15–50 doctoral candidates. The individual dissertation topics often come from a variety of research fields and faculties but are all focused within a defined topic area.
  • Research Training Groups (Promotionskollegs) – small groups with five to seven doctoral candidates covering very specific research questions.

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