Regulations and practices of structured doctoral education in the life sciences in Germany

Abstract

Structured doctoral education is increasingly preferred compared to the individual model. Several science policy organisations give recommendations on how to structure doctoral education. However, there is little research on to what extent these recommendations find their way into practice. In our study, we first compared European and German recommendations on doctoral education with, second, the institutional regulations of structured doctoral programmes (N = 98) in the life sciences at twelve different German universities. Additionally, we third asked doctoral graduates (N = 1796) of these structured doctoral programmes and graduates of individual doctoral studies about their experience in doctoral education. Fourth, we contrasted the regulations of structured doctoral programmes with the reported experiences of their graduates. We found significant deviations of the reported practices of graduates from the regulations of their organisations, regarding the student admission, supervision and curricular activities of doctoral candidates. The efficacy of structured versus traditional doctoral education should be examined based on reported practice rather than on the respective written regulations.

Evaluation of structured doctoral training programs in German life sciences: how much do such programs address hurdles faced by doctoral candidates?

“…Doctoral programs are expected to solve this problem by introducing extensive supervision agreements that include obligations and rights of both doctoral candidates and supervisors, e.g., regular meetings to ensure quality of doctoral education (GSC, 2011). However, previous findings still identify a discrepancy between recommendations for and implementation of supervision agreements (Lachmann et al, 2020).…”

“…Currently, most German universities offer doctoral programs, as well as masterapprentice-models, with various hybrid approaches in between. Consequently, the degree of structure during an individual candidates' training cannot be simply classified as that of a doctoral program versus the traditional master-apprentice-model (Martius et al, 2014;Lachmann et al, 2020). However, there is a clear shift away from the pure master-apprentice-model to doctoral programs and hybrid approaches (Schneijderberg, 2018;BuWiN, 2021), emphasizing the relevance of doctoral programs as structural approaches for doctoral education.…”

“…in the U.S., there is a variety of courses offered and requirements for their attending by graduate students (Nerad, 2008), while in Russia, courses as structured learning opportunities involve both doctoral students and administrators (Maloshonok and Terentev, 2019). In Germany, opportunities for learning critical skills of independent scientific research during doctorates still range from informal to formal learning (Martius et al, 2014;Lachmann et al, 2020). Furthermore, German doctoral programs differ widely in offering different types and numbers of courses (Hauss et al, 2012).…”

“…Various studies on international and national level have investigated the structure of doctoral programs emphasizing the relevance of further improving doctoral education within these programs internationally (e.g., Ehrenberg et al, 2010;Schneijderberg, 2018;Maloshonok and Terentev, 2019;Lachmann et al, 2020). In Germany, for example, several policy demands for improving doctoral education are still not yet implemented (e.g., Lachmann et al, 2020). Recent data on doctoral education in German doctoral programs is lacking although in certain fields, such as the life sciences, the majority of doctoral students is enrolled in doctoral programs (BuWiN, 2021).…”

Comparison of scientometric achievements at PhD and scientific output ten years later for 4,790 academic researchers

“…The United States has the longest PhD program with 4–11 years for graduates depending on subject areas. In Germany, most doctoral candidates work as employees in universities and training decisions are left to supervisors and doctoral students [ 8 ]. In Hungary, a two-year study period ending with a final exam is extended by a three-year research period, and the defense of the doctoral dissertation finishes the training.…”