Course Specifications

Admission

You will find all information concerning admissions here:
http://www.uibk.ac.at/studium/anmeldung-zulassung/zulassung/.

Curriculum

The curriculum can be found here (The english versions of the curricula unfold no legal affects and are for information purposes only):
http://www.uibk.ac.at/studium/angebot/abschluss/#phd

You will find a comprehensive list of the courses currently offered by visiting online course catalogue and selecting the relevant semester.

Doctoral Thesis Agreement

The University of Innsbruck will make use of the Doctoral Thesis Agreement. The aim of the Agreement is to ensure that, on the one hand, the quality of each student’s training corresponds to the demands of a university education, and, on the other hand, that this quality is guaranteed beyond the limits of individual scientific disciplines. PhD students will be able to use the Doctoral Thesis Agreement as a personalised tool from the start of the course right through to submission of their Doctoral Thesis / Dissertation, allowing them to plan the acquisition of individual knowledge, related skills and competences. The Doctoral Thesis Agreement represents a good way of recognising (together with the team of mentors/supervisors) negative developments at an early stage and of promoting positive ones. Furthermore, this instrument allows PhD students to adapt their studies to special requirements resulting from specific research projects or parameters.

Generic Skills

As well as professional education within their chosen disciplines, PhD students have the opportunity, in consultation with their main mentor/supervisor, to develop additional skills and qualifications by completing the module entitled ‘Generic Skills’. Such generic skills are relevant for both scientific careers and other high-level positions away from the fields of university and research, thereby improving students’ employability.

The courses on offer, which are primarily organised by the Vice-Rector for Teaching and Students, include:

Austrian and european labour, social and equality law
Ethics and Science
Gender and Science (runs every semester)
Leadership
Medium being preparation of scientific texts
Meetings in English
Portfolio of Achievements (E-Portfolio)
Successful Scientific Project Management (runs every semester)
Successful Presentations in English (runs every semester)

Please note:

Please note that you must book the courses (Nr. 800.9XX) for the module “generic skills” through LFU:online. The following allocation policy is applied:

Students enrolled in a three year PhD / doctoral programme are given preference in accordance with their doctoral thesis agreement .
To allocate students to the additional groups of a course, the number of semesters enrolled is considered.
If criteria 1 and 2 are not sufficient for allocation, the date of application will be considered.

Students enrolled in a two year doctoral programme (SKZ 080, 081, 083, 084, 086, 091, 092) will only be accepted if there are vacancies.

For more information on the current range of courses visit the online course catalogue and select the relevant semester.

Mentoring

PhD students are no longer supported by just one mentor/supervisor, but instead receive support from a team of mentors/supervisors, enabling better and more intensive mentoring. All relevant details are outlined in the Doctoral Thesis Agreement.

Doctoral Thesis /Dissertation

PhD studies have the aim of training researchers and the next generation of highly-qualified professionals to fill other high-level positions. The main educational focus within PhD studies is on giving students the necessary skills to work individually and creatively within their scientific domain. This independent and original work is documented in the form of a Doctora Thesis / Dissertation.

Duration of Studies

The original research work and the accompanying curriculum should be successfully completed within three years (comparable with 180 ECTS-CP). As students have the option of pursuing their studies in the form of a post-doctorate qualification, it does not seem reasonable to extend the duration of studies at PhD level beyond three years.