Scholarships in Germany: PhD Positions in Transnational Studies

9 août 2011 admin Scholarship / Bourses

Description of the Program

The BTS is a joint endeavour of the Freie Universität Berlin, the Hertie School of Governance, and the Social Science Research Center Berlin. It offers a rigorous and intense English-language PhD programme for exceptionally-talented graduate students in the field of transnational and international relations, defined as an interdisciplinary field of reasearch encompassing Political Science, History, Economics, Law and adjacent disciplines.

The BTS aims towards high standards of structured supervision. In accordance with their research topics, PhD students are supervised by a team of three supervisors. The first supervisor is a faculty member of the BTS. One of the other two co-supervisors can be external to the cooperating institutions (FUB, HSoG, or WZB). In frequent meetings, supervision is carried out along a previously agreed upon work plan. The work plan contains a timetable of when to submit parts or chapters of the PhD thesis and indicates supervision meetings accordingly. Also, work plans function as a track record of changes and amendments to earlier versions. The goal is to identify students’ strengths and weaknesses and to develop strategies to support the students by completing the thesis. Additionally to this individual supervision, the BTS offers training in the field of professional development. This includes training in research management, knowledge transfer and education, publication strategies, and middle-, as well as long-term strategies for career planning. Altogether, the goal of the BTS is to promote its students to successfully finish their PhD projects within three years while being prepared for the next steps of their careers.
International
The further development of an international network consisting of renowned scholars and institutions constitutes the key element of the BTS internationalization strategy. The strategy is supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) as part of the program « International Promovieren in Deutschland? (IPID), funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The awarded funds enable the BTS to enhance the international outlook of its programme by supporting the international mobility of its PhD candidates and expanding international recruitment of the most talented PhD candidates.
The international mobility, our PhD candidates can apply for mobility funds. The mobility funds grant financial assistance for conducting field research abroad and for participating at international conferences. Furthermore, international scholars of the partner institutions are regularly invited to the BTS to work with PhD candidates on individual subjects like research methods and English academic writing. For instance, the BTS in cooperation with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF) regularly organize workshops in Germany and Israel to give PhD candidates the opportunity to present their research and engage in a vivid discussion with renowned scholars to further improve their theses.
Active Research
PhD students are given the opportunity to cooperate with Associate Research Centres and projects. This includes the DFG-Research Centre 700 « Governance in Areas of Limited Statehood », the Center for Area Studies at FUB, the Berlin Center for European Studies (BEST), the Research College « The Transformative Power of Europe », the Centers for « Transnational Relations, Foreign and Security Policy » and « European Integration » at the Otto-Suhr-Institute of FUB, the research projects carried out at the HSoG, and the Research Units « Transnational Conflicts and International Institutions », « Migration, Integration, Transnationalisation », and « Democracy: Structures, Performance Profile and Challenges » at WZB.
Financial Assistance
For a limited number of students, funding is made available by a number of scholarship donors to which we are very grateful. A BTS scholarship includes living expenses of about 1.200 EUR per month plus a research grant of about 1.300 EUR per year. Registration fees (600EUR/year) and health insurance are not included in the scholarship. The three year scholarship will be subject to the satisfying completion of the first and second year of PhD. At the end of the first year, students have to successfully pass the take home exam. Also, their advanced research proposal needs to be evaluated positively by their team of supervisors. At the end of the second year, the overall performance will be evaluated.

Beginning of the Program: 01.10.2012

Duration: 36 Months

Language of study: English

Eligibility

Admission to the programme is open to graduates of masters’ programmes in the social sciences and adjacent fields.
The application requirements for the programme are:

An exceptionally strong completed university degree qualifying for PhD studies in political science, international relations, sociology, economics, law or related disciplines

All documents need to be submitted in English. Calls for applications always run from December till the end of January each year. During that time, we would like to ask you to apply not via DAAD but directly via http://www.transnationalstudies.eu
For information on how to write your research proposal, please consult http://www.transnationalstudies.eu.

Required documents

Curriculum Vitae
Diploma
Short letter of motivation (600 words max)
Research proposal (5000 words max)
Timetable of your project
Proof of C1-level English language skills or the equivalent
Two letters of reference from professors at universities or research institutions

Host Institution
Freie Universität Berlin
14195 Berlin

Berlin Grad. Sch. Transnational Studies
www.transnationalstudies.eu

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