Guiding doctoral students is not only the responsibility of the primary supervisor.
By the end of the first academic year, in consultation with the primary supervisor, all doctoral students must select a second supervisor. This additional supervisor should be available as an extra point of contact for the duration of the doctoral program and research project. Additionally, the second supervisor will also have the responsibility to review and grade the submitted dissertation.
If the topic of the dissertation so requires, the second supervisor may also be a faculty member who is not a member of the originating department. In this case, the doctoral student must submit an application to the doctoral committee, in which the need for an external second supervisor must be justified. This application should include a CV and a list of publications of the requested second supervisor. Secondary supervisors must be habilitated or hold a professorship.
In the case that the second supervisor is not from the originating department, an additional faculty member from the originating department must be appointed for the provision of a third opinion on the dissertation.
Additional support for the doctoral student is available through the doctoral colloquium, which is provided every semester within the department. When doctoral students intend to present their work through this venue, all relevant professors who work in the field in which the dissertation topic belongs to will be invited.
A series of seminars are offered to doctoral students every semester. While some seminars are also open to advanced MA students, others are only made available to doctoral students. Most seminars are held on a weekly basis, but some – as with the Doctoral Colloquium – are blocked seminars. The current course offerings in the PhD program can be found here.