Tafel mit Hierarchiebaum

Structure

Structure and organization of the Graduate Academy
Tafel mit Hierarchiebaum
Image: istockphoto.com

The Graduate Academy is led by a scientific director. Typically, the Vice President for Young Researchers and Diversity Management of University of Jena is appointed for this position. The scientific director is responsible for the close connection to the university leadership and is primarily responsible for the strategic orientation.

In addition, there are the Executive Committee and the Board of the Academy. The latter meets twice a year and is mainly active in the admission and evaluation of member institutions as well as in an advisory capacity. The operational management of the Graduate Academy is organised by an administrative office. Since August 2016, the office is led by a joint board of two female directors.

Executive Committee

The Graduate Academy is managed by a three-member board of directors, headed by a scientific director. The Director represents the Graduate Academy within the university and externally and is responsible for implementing the decisions of the Executive Committee and the Board of the Academy.

Composition

The Executive Committee consists of the scientific director and two deputies. They are elected from among the group of professors. The deputies must be spokesperson of a graduate school or a research training group. The Executive Committee is elected by the Board of the Academy. It is a four-year term.

Members

Board of the Academy

The Board of the Academy decides on all fundamental matters concerning the Graduate Academy and elects the Executive Committee. It is responsible for the admission of new member institutions. The Board of the Academy consists of 10 persons and their deputies.

Composition

All status and subject groups of the member institutions are represented in the Board of the Academy. The allocation of seats is conducted according to five selective groups:

  • Professors of natural sciences, mathematics and informatics (3 seats)
  • Professors of humanities and social sciences (3 seats)
  • Postdocs (1 seat)
  • Doctoral candidates of natural sciences, mathematics and informatics (2 seats)
  • Doctoral candidates of humanities and social sciences (1 seat)

Members of the Graduate Academy's member institutions associated with the Friedrich Schiller University Jena elect the representatives of their respective voting group. The term of the professors' representatives amounts to three years, the term of the young researchers' representatives amount to one year.

Members

Office

Entrance of the office of Graduate Academy Entrance of the office of Graduate Academy Image: Jan-Peter Kasper (University of Jena)

The administrative office is the central service institution for doctoral researchers and postdocs at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena. It connects and advises the member institutions of the Graduate Academy. It also supports the strategic activities of the Vice President for Young Researchers and Diversity Management.

You can find the staff of the office here.

Member institutions

The Graduate Academy is the umbrella organization of the structured doctoral programmes at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena. Currently, more than 20 institutions of doctoral qualification belong to it: Five large graduate schools, which include further structured doctoral programmes, and 14 independent research training groups. In total, about 900 doctoral researchers are currently doing their doctorates in the various member institutions of the Graduate Academy. This corresponds to about a third of all doctoral researchers at Friedrich Schiller University Jena (excluding Medicine).

Graduate schools

Abbe School of Photonics
(Natural and life sciences)

Graduate school at German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (yDiv)External link
(Natural and life sciences)

Graduate school "Human Behaviour in Social and Economic Change"
(Social and behavioural sciences, economics)

Jena School for Microbial CommunicationExternal link
(Natural and life sciences)

Jena School of Molecular MedicineExternal link
(Natural and life sciences)

Research training groups
How to become a member of Graduate Academy

All doctoral programmes can become member institutions of the Graduate Academy.

As part of the admission procedure, the Board of the Academy examines whether the conception of the doctoral programme meets university-wide binding quality standards in doctoral qualification. Accordingly, membership of the Graduate Academy represents a seal of quality. If you have any questions regarding the admission of a doctoral programme to the Graduate Academy, please contact Dr. Gunda Huskobla.

In the interests of quality assurance, all member programmes of the Graduate Academy are to be evaluated regularly. For this purpose, the principles of the evaluation procedure (in German) were established in 2018.

Graduate schools

fungus on a spruce root
The JSMC is not only an Excellence Graduate School, but also a lively network of scientists from a broad variety of natural & life sciences institutes