PhD at the IPEK

At the IPEK, an assistant doctorate is not only understood as a mere continuation of the professional training, but rather as a first step of the professional career, in which the doctoral students gain their first professional and leadership experience in addition to their scientific training. The assistant doctorate at IPEK is based on an overall balanced, scientifically sound and at the same time industry practice-oriented spectrum of qualifications for the future junior executives. The doctoral process is deliberately designed in such a way that, in addition to the scientific, specialized depth, both the technical, general breadth and a broad spectrum of non-technical qualifications (key qualifications) are acquired. Structured supervision and individual support of the doctoral students is guaranteed. To this end, an appropriate action environment and a target-oriented structure have been established in order to qualify the doctoral students for both academic careers and research and management tasks in industry by individually combining the identified success factors.

The success factors or essential elements of the assistant doctorate at IPEK are:

• Process guidelines / process structure
• Scientific coordination / scientific platforms
• Personnel development concept (key qualifications)
• Practical, system-oriented method and process development

Throughout the entire doctoral period, discussions take place, some of which are firmly planned by the doctoral process at the institute, others freely agreed upon by the doctoral students. The aim was to point out and concretize perspectives and possibilities . In addition, the doctoral student receives feedback according to his performance and advice on his further possibilities at IPEK. After approx. 2.5 years, the doctoral student is obliged to formulate an abstract of the dissertation according to the process in the obligation. Furthermore, the structure of the dissertation has to be concretized for the first time and the realization of a "journal contribution" has to be initialized. After about 3.5 years the actual writing of the dissertation takes place. After approx. 4.5 years, the doctoral student should have a completed status in terms of content available and bring it up for discussion. After a total of about 5 years, the submission, evaluation and examination of the dissertation should take place.

Learn more about the assistant doctorate at IPEK here.

The work on current and exciting topics can be done in different research areas: