Curriculum
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Overall, the DK‑plus curriculum will follow the University guidelines as laid out in the curricula for the four participating branches physics, mathematics, computer science and civil engineering. However, although the total sum is still 180 ECTS points, here only 115 points will be received for successful submission of the PhD thesis, instead of 120 in the traditional doctoral programmes. The remaining 65 points are achieved by attending lectures, laboratory courses, summer / winter schools, the final examination, soft skill courses, presenting talks or posters at conferences and publishing scientific results. Thus, for successfully completing the DK‑plus almost 10% more lectures need to be completed than in the standard doctoral programme at Innsbruck University.
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Courses are selected to optimize the complement of excellent colleagues from different fields and to provide a balance between
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Apart from the submission of the PhD thesis, the curriculum consists of three main parts: basic courses (30 ECTS), advanced courses (15 ECTS) and special courses (20 ECTS). The latter block consists of the final examination ("Rigorosum"), a set of soft skills courses, publications, conferences, talks and schools. All these parts are compulsory for every student. Furthermore, the students must attend all basic courses to reach a common level of knowledge, such that they are equally apt to proceed with the advanced courses. The basic courses make up for the main budget in the ECTS accounting: they are worth 30 ECTS. The advanced courses are optional. Out of the list presented below the students have to select enough courses to at least obtain another 15 ECTS points.
Basic Courses
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The basic courses form a compulsory core of lectures, lab courses and seminars for all students. They are held mostly by the faculty members with special focus on methods. Some of the courses are in co-operation with members of both methods and the applied groups. In special teaching classes students from all fields will exchange their experience.
Schematic list of basic courses:
Advanced Courses
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Students have to select additional courses related to their field from a set of advanced courses. They are often held by several faculty members interdisciplinarily. Thus, they are an innovative addition to normal specialized PhD classes. The choice should be coordinated with the supervisors of the thesis, and they should make up for a total of 15 ECTS points.
Special Courses
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Finally, the basic and advanced courses are complemented by a set of special courses. Participation in a subset of them is compulsory for all students. They are selected in consultation with the supervisor of the thesis.
In total 20 ECTS points should be covered by special couses, where 5 ECTS points are devoted to the "Rigorosum". This is a defense starting with a public talk and a short public discussion of the results of the thesis followed by a short exam covering topics also beyond the specific field of the thesis.
Points are also given for attending conferences with own presentations (posters or talks), scientific publications and summer schools. A winter school of the course will be held twice at the university conference center in Obergurgl. It will address additional topics/fields by international readers, which are not covered by the DK-plus faculty. Attendance of students from all fields is expected.
Schematic list of special courses:
Additional Qualifications
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The students will gain certain capabilities and additional (soft) skills, which are of vital importance for a successful scientific or industrial career. These complementary skills will include:
- definition and structuring of project-work
- formulation of working plans and assessment of achieved results
- intellectual property rights
- project management including record keeping
- presentation of results
- soft skills / teamwork / communication
- writing of scientific papers and project applications
- good laboratory practice and good manufacturing practice
- teaching skills
- international experience
- good scientific practice
- practice in working interdisciplinarily
These skills will be acquired in the course of the curriculum during various lectures, seminars and laboratory courses. Presenting their work on certain occasions, e.g. at thesis committee meetings, workshops, conferences or stays at other international institutes, provides another means of building up these skills.
Moreover, DK students will have the opportunity to gain experience in organizing meetings or conferences as they will be in charge of arranging e.g. the meetings of the "student board". Workshops and courses will take place in coordination with yearly meetings of various organs of the DK‑plus. This will give young researchers the opportunity to discuss and present their achievements. Furthermore, they will have the option of a "rehearsal" before they are going to present their results to a broader community. Presentations of results will be done in accordance with intellectual property rights rules.
Additionally, the University of Innsbruck teaches some of the aforementioned skills in specific courses. On top of that, with the support from various university institutions (e.g. project service office) the scientific manager of the doctoral school will organise courses, which will address and teach management and project coordination expertise as listed above.