General Information
The Graduate School of Economic and Social Sciences (GESS) is unique in Germany and one of the few graduate schools worldwide, which foster the exchange of ideas, methods and approaches to research across the boundaries of the economic and the social sciences. It equips students with a broad scientific vision in a critical phase of their academic socialization and enables them to achieve excellence in their own field of research. Taking part in one of the doctoral programs at the GESS prepares students for academic positions at leading universities and institutions worldwide.
Benefits for GESS students
- innovative research topics under the supervision of internationally renowned professors
- meeting and working with graduate students from all over the world from diverse social and cultural backgrounds
- a vibrant and international research community
- no tuition fees and guaranteed financial support
- own office space, IT systems and software
- one of the best equipped university libraries in Germany with over 1.5 million books and approximately 5,000 journals
- a supportive and collaborative administration
Doctoral programs
Germany and the Ph.D.
In Germany most universities confer doctoral degrees that use specific Latin designations to indicate the field in which the doctoral degree was obtained. This is different for the Ph.D. (doctor philosophiae), which is conferred across many different academic fields.
Both titles are awarded after an intensive study and research period which concludes in the successful submission and defense of a doctoral thesis.
At the GESS the following doctoral titles are conferred:
- Faculty of Business and Economics: Dr. rer. pol (doctor rerum politicarum)
- Faculty of Social Sciences: Dr. rer. soc. (doctor rerum socialium)