Well-informed doctorate with doctoral counselling

Dr Janosik Herder provides support  with questions relating to the doctorate

A doctorate is a prerequisite for an academic career. However, getting there is not always easy. If you want to do a doctorate, you have to find a topic and a supervisor and think about funding. At Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences, doctoral students are not alone with their questions. Dr Janosik Herder offers advice for anyone interested in doing a doctorate. "We want to further qualify our young academics and therefore advise Master's students and employees, as well as alumni. It doesn't matter whether they are still thinking about doing a doctorate or are already doing one and need support in the meantime," he says.

Doctoral requirements often vary greatly

Dr Janosik Herder works on the ‘BeProf@BHV’ project. The aim of this project is to recruit new professors for Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences. Anyone wishing to be appointed to a university of applied sciences must demonstrate pedagogical aptitude, have a doctorate and have relevant professional experience. The project offers support for all points, for example through further training for lecturers and co-operation professorships with companies. Doctoral counselling is also part of this. At present, doctorates are only possible in co-operation with universities throughout Germany. However, there are a few subtleties that need to be considered. "When looking for a partner university, those interested must read the respective doctoral regulations very carefully and find out under what conditions they can do their doctorate there. The regulations are different at every university and sometimes, for example, only allow graduates with a diploma from a university of applied sciences to do so subject to conditions - such as catching up on courses," explains Dr Herder. However, there is a cooperation with the University of Bremen, in which the doctoral students each have a supervisor at the college and at the university. The doctoral students benefit from the mixture of the high practical relevance of the university lecturers and the theoretical focus of the universities.

Supervision agreement and funding

The needs of doctoral students vary greatly. Some organise themselves, others want regular meetings with their supervisors. Dr Herder therefore recommends openly discussing your own ideas and recording them in a supervision agreement. "Sometimes the doctoral students have completely different ideas about the collaboration than the person who is supervising them. It is important to seek dialogue right at the beginning and clarify the expectations of both sides."

In addition to finding a topic and a person to supervise the doctorate, securing funding is an important step. "Many interested parties are already working and would like to do a part-time doctorate. As they have to reduce their hours, they look for a way to compensate for this financially," says Dr Janosik Herder. At Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences, two positions are advertised each year to support young academics in starting their doctorate. This start-up funding from the ‘BeProf@BHV’ project is intended to help those interested in doing a doctorate to get their projects off the ground in terms of content, organisation and funding, without having to start directly with financial worries. With success: the first funded doctoral students have successfully started their doctoral projects and are enrolled at the respective universities.

Exchange at the doctoral circle

The path to a doctorate can be a long one. A doctorate means working on a research topic for a long time, reading a lot of specialist literature, conducting experiments and analysing large amounts of data. Doctoral students sometimes encounter problems in the process. As with many things, the same applies here: It's easier together. That's why the Bremerhaven PhD Circle meets once a month, to which all doctoral students at the university are invited. "Participation is not compulsory, but is intended as a discussion forum. It's also about staying on the ball in difficult moments. This is easier if, for example, there is a fixed date on which an interim result is to be presented. The participants also give each other feedback and share successes and challenges with each other," says Dr Herder. There is also the ‘Social Research Colloquium’ for people doing a doctorate in a humanities subject. The meetings take place twice a year and are also open to doctoral students from outside the university.

If you are interested in a doctorate at Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences, please contact Dr Janosik Herder at promotionsberatung@hs-bremerhaven.de or find out more at www.hs-bremerhaven.de/en/career/promotion.
If you would like to find out more about the path to a professorship, you can find information at www.hs-bremerhaven.de/professorship.
You can find out how to become a lecturer at Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences at www.hs-bremerhaven.de/en/career/become-a-lecturer.

Translated with the assistance of deepl.com.