FAQ

A Master’s degree certificate and complete transcripts are requirements for employment as a doctoral researcher at the University of Bremen, all documents must be available at the time of recruitment. Please submit copies of the relevant documents at the time of application.

The doctoral degree certificate and complete transcripts are requirements for employment as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bremen. Please submit copies of the relevant documents at the time of application.

Complete transcripts complement your degree certificate and normally include an overview of all modules, seminars, exams taken, etc. that are part of your degree, as well as the respective grades or points achieved for each.

You are welcome to apply; whether your particular Master’s degree qualifies you for a doctoral program at the University of Bremen will be examined on a case-by-case basis for applicants who are successful in the pre-selection process; the final decision lies with the respective doctoral committee at the University.

No, you do not have to. However, you should take a close look at the profiles of the RTG’s faculty to find out whether your project can be supervised within the RTG. If you have any questions about the fit of your research project, please do not hesitate to contact a member of faculty.

Letters of recommendation may be submitted by any independent university teacher / researcher familiar with your work. The respective person must have at least completed his/her doctorate.

Where appropriate, letters of recommendation may be submitted by academics with a doctorate who work as researchers outside of the university (for instance, at a research institute) or who work in a field directly related to the content of Contradiction Studies (say, at an NGO).

Letters of recommendation may be submitted from different disciplines, if desired. There are no specific guidelines regarding scope or content. 

See also “R3 / R4 researcher” here: circabc.europa.eu/sd/a/d1ae7fdd-e80f-4b54-973b-dcea380132e4/ED-20120315-WG3-Point%203-Framework%20Research%20Careers-short.pdf

For your application, we ask you to submit a short exposé of the planned doctoral project of up to five pages. In this exposé, you should describe the topic of research, introduce your research question and methodology, situate the project in current academic debates, and relate it to the research program of the RTG.

The point of an exposé is to present what you want to study, how you want to study it, and why you want to study it/why it is worth studying in a very clear and succinct manner.

Depending on your academic discipline and the particularities of your specific project, the focus and format of your exposé may vary. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact one of the researchers involved in the RTG.

If you are currently still enrolled at a university, there may be staff on site who can advise you on how to write an exposé. In any case, we recommend that you have your exposé proofread before submitting it; preferably by someone who is familiar with your research topic.

Degree certificates and other documents in languages other than English or German must be translated into English or German. At the point of application, basically any translation that’s clear and accurate will do; but please note that should your application be successful, you will have to provide a translation by a certified and nationally accredited translator within a very short time frame. Please plan accordingly.

Please also include an explanation of the grade system used in certificates and transcripts.