Ten years of University of Bayreuth Graduate School

The University of Bayreuth Graduate School (UBTGS), a service institution specifically for doctoral students, celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2023. It supports all young scientific talents who have been accepted for doctoral studies by one of the seven faculties or a graduate centre of the University of Bayreuth. Since its inauguration in May 2013, the UBTGS has succeeded in sustainably advancing interdisciplinary support on campus with its services geared to high quality standards. A steadily growing network of interdisciplinary and international contacts provides an attractive environment for the research work of doctoral students and supports the successful completion of their dissertations at the University of Bayreuth.

Membership in the UBTGS is open to all doctoral candidates at the University of Bayreuth, it is voluntary and free of charge. Currently, the UBTGS has about 1,000 members from all disciplines and faculties. This support on the way to a doctorate, which is unique in Germany, the multidisciplinary spectrum, the structural promotion of scientific quality as well as the application of the latest findings and instruments in the field of career promotion make the UBTGS a unique institution for the promotion of doctoral candidates.

In close cooperation with the university management, the faculties and the graduate centres of the University of Bayreuth, the UBTGS implements a broad interdisciplinary support programme in English and German. It strengthens the mutual exchange of doctoral students on campus, for example through ShowME events, workshops and regular get-togethers. A core element of the UBTGS are individual financial contributions for conference participation and research stays.

The establishment of the University of Bayreuth Graduate School was prepared by an internal university working group, which began in 2011 to develop a concept for this institution, which was unusual in the university landscape at the time. All stakeholders actively participated in this process. The grand opening finally took place on May 14, 2013, and the first members were admitted shortly thereafter. Even at its launch, the UBTGS was firmly anchored in the basic regulations of the University of Bayreuth. In the ten years of its existence, it has succeeded in deepening the qualifications of doctoral students beyond subject boundaries, promoting their mutual exchange in this phase of independent stand-alone research, and advising them early on with regard to their further careers.