Doctoral Programme

BIGSAS brings together excellent junior scholars in a structured and innovative doctoral programme and interdisciplinary environment. The graduate school offers young academics an individually centered research approach with a multidisciplinary mentoring structure, financial and academic support, individual research and training plans, specialist training (focusing on academic as well as transferable skills), early integration into the international academic community, and individual career planning. At the end, BIGSAS offers doctoral degrees as Dr phil or Dr rer nat, and in cooperation with the faculty of Law, Business & Economics as Dr jur or Dr rer pol. Furthermore, joint supervision / degrees in the form of a cotutelle or sandwich model is possible within the institution.

The PhD research at BIGSAS can be started throughout the whole year and is meant to be completed within four years.

The BIGSAS doctoral programme itself consists of interdisciplinary research possibilities, associated mentoring teams (comprising one supervisor and two mentors), subject-specific trainings given from experts, like interdisciplinary courses, thematic workshops and methodological seminars, as well as research colloquia and other academic events. BIGSAS offers furthermore the possibility to support language classes, working groups, and courses on demand.

As all those activities rely on the active participation and contributions of BIGSAS Senior and Junior Fellows alike, we expect that all doctoral candidates are present in Bayreuth during their PhD time. The exception would be special occasions such as semester breaks, field research trips or the attendance of conferences and summer/winter schools.

The programme enables the doctoral candidates, the Junior Fellows, not only to write their dissertations within the time to degree but also to enhance their research skills through theoretical and methodological courses as well as in discussions with their supervisors, mentors, fellow students and guest professors. This lively exchange of thoughts and ideas is highly enriched by and based on the cultural diversity to be found at BIGSAS.

BIGSAS builds on:

• long-term experience in research on Africa;
• close cooperation with African colleagues;
• in-depth experience in doctoral training since 1984;
• a library with more than 186,000 books on Africa, 33,000 titles of audiovisual material, 200 periodicals, 5,000 maps and a growing number of e-books and e-book collections;
• an open-minded environment that fosters intercultural understanding between individuals and internationalisation between institutions.
• Clearly structured individual research, doctoral training and coaching
• Interdisciplinary research approach with a multi-disciplinary mentorship of one supervisor and two mentors
• Specialist academic training with a focus on interdisciplinary and employment-oriented transferable skills
• Early integration into the international academic community
• Assistance in academic and organisational matters
• A PhD at BIGSAS includes:
  • Field Research Trips
  • Internal Trainings & Workshops
  • External Conferences and Summer Schools
    
• Supported via:
  • Mentoring Group
  • Internal Funding Opportunities
    

Doctoral Regulation(s)

The doctoral regulations set out the requirements for your doctoral studies at BIGSAS, including your application process, your supervision, the examination procedures and criteria for acceptance and evaluation of the dissertation.

Currently, there are two different doctoral regulations in place:

• The Doctoral Regulations for the Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies (BIGSAS) at the Institute of African Studies at the University of Bayreuth dated 15 September 2017
• The Doctoral Regulations for the Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies (BIGSAS) in the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence at the University of Bayreuth dated 15 February 2021

Please always refer back and consider your respective doctoral regulation. We provide the doctoral regulations in different languages, however the German text is the legally binding version.

BIGSAS Doctoral Regulations, issued 15 September 2017

• Promotionsordnung (German version)
• Doctoral regulations (English version)
• Règlement intérieur de doctorat (French version)
  

BIGSAS Doctoral Regulations, issued 15 February 2021

• Promotionsordnung (German version)
• Doctoral regulations (English version)Règlement intérieur de doctorat (French version)
• Most important changes summarised (English)
• Modifications les plus significatives de la nouvelle version du règlement du doctorat (français)

Supervision Agreement acc. to § 4 of the BIGSAS Doctoral Regulations, issued 15 February 2021

• Template in English (docx)
  
• Template in German (docx)