Graduate School

Overview

The overall orientation of the content being treated in the graduate program is geared towards the three research clusters of the GPN.

Smaller peer groups will be built with those PhD students who do research in the same cluster to encourage peer-to-peer learning across space and different cultures. The doctoral students will be encouraged to actively participate in the design of the graduate school program and thereby can shape parts of it according to their specific needs and wishes.

GPN research cluster

Virtual Graduate Program

Our graduate school coordinator organizes a regular virtual graduate program for which she invites guests such as members from the different GPN partners: the partner universities as well as the partner civil society organizations. This allows a wide range of expertise in different theoretical and practical fields to be incorporated into our graduate school and further to establish a link between theory and practice.

The prevalent online format allows a rich international and inter-cultural exchange without fuelling the already ongoing climate crisis too much via flights. As online exchanges can be intensive, shorter virtual workshops and seminars are offered on a regular basis (approximately once a month).

Scholarships

The GPN grants 18 scholarships exclusively to PhD students from the global South in order to back Southern higher education knowledge production. Additionally, an association with the Global Partnership Graduate School can be applied for, if PhD students have at least one GPN supervisor (no scholarship attached!).

In general, we offer a graduate program in which our PhD students are co-supervised by professors from two GPN partner universities. The selected PhD students are based at the university of their first supervisor but also have the chance to spend six months at the university of their second supervisor.

Learn more about the scholarship program

Explore the Graduate School network

The GPN Reader

Readers with academic texts on the different topics within the clusters and practical advice on thesis writing were jointly compiled by the graduate program coordinator, the supervisors and other GPN members. In addition to the GPN reader, the GPN partners develop E-learning tools like video lectures, which support the integration of interdisciplinary and diverse knowledge originating from our partners into the teaching of the graduate school.

The regular virtual seminars also include live inputs on specific topics, theories and methods, which is given by the PhD supervisors and other GPN researchers. PhD students prepare presentations on the progress of their thesis and receive feedback from their peers, their supervisors and other participating GPN researchers. Aligned to our research clusters, a focus of the graduate programme will lie on the analysis of and reflection on global partnerships.