Doctoral
The Institute’s faculty members are available to supervise doctoral/PhD theses in their respective research groups.
Interested in applying for doctoral studies with us?
If you consider asking Sigrid Stagl, Stefan Giljum, and / or Armon Rezai to supervise your dissertation, please note the following conditions:
In our view, doctoral studies serve as a preparation for work in academia/at research institutes/at think tanks.
We are happy to consider supervision of dissertations dealing with topics that relate to our research fields.
Co-supervision is the norm. This way you get more feedback, and the suggestions are based on a broader range of perspectives.
We prefer to receive your texts in English, as this makes it easier to submit your work to international peer-reviewed journals.
We normally meet our doctoral students at least once a month for discussions.
We acknowledge that you may need to take on part-time employment to pay the bills. However, your doctoral studies should be your main activity. It is extremely difficult to combine doctoral studies with full-time work; this option is only realistic if your employer supports your studies by granting a reduction in working hours or leave at key stages of the doctoral project.
Doctoral studies are normally completed in 3-4 years.
It is generally possible and recommended to write a cumulative dissertation, which means you primarily focus on writing 3 (or more) publishable papers. These are eventually integrated into a single document, with an added introduction that puts the individual papers into a single, coherent framework, and a discussion of the methods and main findings.
The expected outcome of a dissertation are three articles suitable for publication in international peer-reviewed journals.
If these conditions are consistent with your goals, we look forward to receiving your proposal.
For further information about doctoral/PhD programs at WU, please visit the WU doctoral/PhD programs info page.
A non-exhaustive list of funding opportunities our PhD candidates have applied to in the past (eligibility criteria might apply) can be found here.
Secretary Office