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16.11.2025 | Incher | Forschung

In December, a new research project on how international doctoral candidates from German universities integrate into the German workforce will begin

‘Trained and retained? International doctoral students on the German labour market’ is the title of the upcoming research project led by Guido Bünstorf (University of Kassel) and Anja Rossen (IAB Nuremberg). The project will start in December 2025 and will offer new perspectives on the retention of non-German doctoral students who have been trained at German universities and their subsequent employment in Germany.

The number and share of non-German doctoral students at German universities have more than tripled over the last three decades. This increase has the potential to improve human capital and alleviate the shortage of highly qualified employees. However, the implications of training international doctoral students for the labour market have not yet been sufficiently researched. We know too little about their retention rate in the German labour market after completing their PhD and about the factors that influence this retention and their subsequent employment. Based on a novel approach to identifying international doctoral students in process-generated data, the planned project will provide new insights into how international doctoral students are integrated into the German labour market.

The project is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and is led by Dr. Anja Rossen (IAB Nürnberg) and Prof. Dr. Guido Bünstorf (INCHER & University of Kassel).

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