Excellent trainings for doctoral researchers!

The partner institutions of Berlin University Alliance have teamed up to organize their Graduate Studies Support Program, a broad portfolio of trainings, retreats, conferences and other events. The program is open to doctoral researchers from all subjects, as long as they are affiliated to Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, or Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. It is free of charge.

Further information on the Graduate Studies Support Program

Workshops & Events

Breakout Session - Time Management: This online breakout session will provide common time management techniques. Participants will learn how to set priorities, plan a week and reflect individual habits and preferences. Further, the training will help to handle disturbances and how to deal with procrastination.

Doing a doctorate: yes or no? This interdisciplinary intensive workshop is aimed at master's students and graduates who would like to pursue a doctorate at an institution within the BUA network (HU, TU, FU Berlin & Charité) or who are currently in the decision-making phase. For technical reasons, only BUA members can currently register via the booking platform. All others should register by emailing hgs-workshops@hu-berlin.de. In this intensive workshop, you will reflect on questions such as “What do I want?”, “Do I really want to pursue a doctorate?” and “How can I tackle and persevere with this major project?”. The one-day seminar will help you clarify your personal attitude toward your dissertation project and make statements about its feasibility. You will thus develop a sound basis for deciding for or against a dissertation.

Introductory events for new PhD students: In cooperation with the faculties, the Center for Junior Scholars at Technische Universität Berlin organizes annual introductory events for new doctoral candidates (and postdocs). In addition to networking, formal questions about doctoral registration are answered and the most important contacts are introduced, from doctoral offices and faculty service centers to doctoral advisors and representatives on academic committees.

Kick Off Your Doctorate: As a face-to-face event for doctoral students starting their doctorate in Berlin, the Berlin University Alliance offers a two-day retreat. Accompanied by experienced trainers, a selection of key tools will be tested in exercises and opportunities will be identified to explore these in greater depth across institutions in further follow-up workshops. Group-building activities form the core of the event, making the kick-off a valuable networking event.

Presentation Skills: Engaging your listener in your talk for doctoral researchers in the social science and humanities: This is an activity-based workshop led by theatre professionals whose expertise is in helping the speaker effectively communicate the importance and relevance of the work and the core message in the talk. Repetition is a key aspect of the training so that participants can strenghten the narrative, the emotional tone, and the physicality of the talk in order to define and support the speaker's own dynamic style. The seminar provides participants the opportunity to perfect their public-speaking skills. Constructive feedback from the trainer and group members as well as videotaping give the speaker a healthy amount of input while perfecting public-speaking skills. Participants will be required to prepare a 3 to 5 minute pitch or overview of their work incorporating also the use of a slide. This will provide a basis for applying the practical aims of the workshop.

Scientific and Academic Argumentation: Critical Reasoning and Logic: Scientists and scholars have to give arguments all the time - in their publications as well as in conferences and lab meetings. Nevertheless, the bases for strong and correct arguments are not always fully clear to them. Logic provides extremely helpful tools for scientists and scholars to develop their arguments in a coherent, well-structured and convincing way. The seminar gives an introduction to the most important concepts of logic: premises and conclusions of arguments, validity and soundness of arguments, deductive vs. inductive reasoning, common types of inferences and fallacies. The idea of the workshop is to use the concepts as a toolbox which provides very useful techniques for every-day scientific work.The participants learn how to reconstruct arguments from scientific texts, how to give well-structured and logically valid arguments, and how to avoid misunderstandings. There are two main sets of exercises: one for written argumentation and one for oral argumentation.

Setting Sail for Mental Health – Strengthened and healthy through the doctoral thesis: Do you have the feeling of being constantly tense, sometimes unable to cope with problems and no longer experiencing any fun in your daily work? A doctorate means more than just writing the dissertation. The pressure to perform and the degree of personal responsibility are high. What can you do to experience the doctoral phase in a healthy, even joyful way? This module has a fine repertoire of creative methods from Positive Psychology and Happiness Research, MBSR (Mindful Based Stress Reduction) and Resilience Coaching. It enables you to better deal with doctoral-related stress, strengthens your psychological resilience and supports you in dealing appropriately with the various challenges in the doctoral phase and in maintaining your mental health.

The Dahlem Research School Podcast: Navigating the Doctorate: The Dahlem Research School podcast for prospective and current doctoral researchers was created to help support individuals who are considering a doctorate or who are already working on a doctorate. Across various seasons of the podcast, you’ll hear from former and current researchers talking about their experiences with the doctorate and in their transition to the job market after completing their doctorate as well as from various experts at the Freie Universität and beyond.

Freie Universität Berlin - Dahlem Research School: Dahlem Research School (DRS) is the central institution for young researchers at Freie Universität Berlin. It coordinates a broad range of doctoral programs, advises on all issues related to structured and individual doctoral studies, and offers an inspiring qualification program.

Humbolt-Universität zu Berlin - Humboldt Graduate School: The Humboldt Graduate School is the central institution for the strategic promotion of scientists and scholars in the early career phase at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

Technische Universität Berlin - Center for Junior Scholars: The Center for Junior Scholars acts as a kind of pilot for all questions concerning young scientists from the doctoral and postdoc phases to junior professorships or junior research group leadership.

Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin - Doctoral College: The Doctoral College of Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin offers students and doctoral candidates of Charité an extensive and free range of student tutorials on basic skills of scientific work.