Research and Education
- Photo: Peter Hamza
The MPGC curriculum combines research with education. The major obligation of a doctoral student enrolled in the MPGC is the work on his or her PhD thesis. While about 80% of the regular working time should be spent on this, the Graduate Center aims also at further education of its doctoral students. Therefore, it includes a personal program with fixed obligatory and variable obligatory parts (roughly 2/3 and 1/3 of the remaining 20% of the PhD time).
Fixed curriculum parts
The individual program may vary and will be determined by the advisory group of the student, consisting of two supervisors and two mentors. It will be noted in a supervision agreement. A major fraction of the fixed part may be dedicated to teaching at the university, in lectures, tutorial courses or supervision of laboratory or other work of regular students. Another fraction will be dedicated to participation in three research schools and participation in the MPGC lecture cycle. The exact program will be negociated with each student separately.
Variable Parts and Credit Points
In the variable part, the student can accumulate further credit points. At least 12 credit points (CP) are mandatory during his or her PhD time. There may be certain lectures imposed by the advisory group depending on the precognition of the student. They can be credited in this system. Furthermore, oral presentations or posters during international conferences or an additional summer school can be awarded by credit points according to the credit point system given below. The participation has to be confirmed by the lecturer or organiser of the event.
Participation in the MPGC lecture cycle, per year | 1 CP |
Participation in a lecture (at least 2 SWS*) | 3 CP |
Participation in an exercise (at least 2 SWS*) | 3 CP |
Participation in a research school | 2 CP |
Oral presentation on international conferences | 2 CP |
Poster presentation on international conferences | 1 CP |
*The abbreviation SWS means (German) "Semesterwochenstunde" = academic hour during the term. 1 SWS corresponds to one course unit of 45 mins per week in the lecture time, which lasts usually for 14 weeks per term.