Regular membership - starter scholarships

Who is eligible for a starter scholarship?

BAGSS invites applications from highly qualified graduates in the fields of Sociology, Psychology, Education, Political Science, Labour and Educational Economics and Demography. Qualified graduates of related subjects with a strong Social Science background are also encouraged to apply. Candidates must hold a Master's degree (or equivalent) in one of the aforementioned subjects or be very close to completion. (The degree must be completed by the time of admission to BAGSS. The next admission date is April 1, 2016.)

Current application period:

Applications for the starter scholarships will be accepted from September 1, 2015, on. The deadline for application is October 31, 2015. The starter scholarships will be awarded from April 1, 2016, on.

Applicants need to provide at least one, but not more than two proposals for research topics which they would like to pursue in their doctoral project. The suggested topics need to fit thematically to at least one of the four academic pillars of BAGSS. 

Applicants must have an excellent command of English. If English is not your native tongue, you need to supply a proof of proficiency.

BAGSS is firmly committed to the goal of diversity and equal opportunities. It emphatically encourages applications by women. The University of Bamberg is a certified family-friendly university which offers comprehensive advice on reconciling family and work life.

What candidates and projects are we looking for?

The selection procedure for the starter scholarships - and therefore an admission to BAGSS - is a highly competitive process with appropriate consideration for diversity and equal opportunities. The two main criteria are the candidate's proven record of academic excellence on the one hand, and BAGSS' ability to ensure competent, research-led supervision on the other.

We are interested in projects that fit with at least one of our School's four Pillars. Proposals cutting across two (or more) Pillars are equally welcomed. We also take into account proposals that do not tally exactly with the Pillar profiles, but are very closely related. An overview which topics can be supervised by our faculty can be found here.

Selection criteria

Criteria applied in the selection procedure for the regular membership at BAGSS, i.e. for the admission to BAGSS, supervision and the award of scholarships

1. A complete, formally correct application has been submitted by the advertised deadline in the required fashion
2. The statutory criteria for admission to doctoral studies at Bavarian universities are met.
3. The research topic for the doctoral dissertation, as proposed in the application, matches the academic profile of BAGSS.
4. At least one faculty member of BAGSS, who is eligible for the examination of doctoral theses, agrees to supervise the suggested dissertation topic.
5. The complete application has been judged as excellent by a panel of academic assessors from the Graduate School in competition with other applications.

Should one of the above-mentioned criteria not be met due to a documented eligible disability under the provision of the relevant German legislation (the IX. Sozialgesetzbuch), candidates may apply to have their special circumstances considered. Should you require advice on the statutory rules, please contactmiriam.schneider(at)uni-bamberg.de.

Applications for the scholarship year April 2016 - March 2017 are accepted from September 1, 2015, until October 31, 2015.

Applications from candidates who have secured their own funding (e.g. scholarship from external institution) are accepted throughout the whole year.

Submit your application

How to submit your application

If you wish to apply for a starter scholarship:

All documents, except for the letters of recommendation, need to be submitted as a single PDF (max. 30 MB).

In this single PDF file, please do arrange your documents in the following order:

1. cover letter
2. CV
3. research proposal(s)
4. academic degree certificates and university grade transcripts
5. statement of knowledge of research methods

A free software for creating PDFs and merging them into a single document is available here. Please use your surname to name your application file (SURNAME.pdf; make sure to avoid special characters).

Please submit the completed file here. In case of technical problems, please contact us.

If you wish to apply for the regular membership while having secured own funding:

Please create a PDF file as described above, and add as last document in the file a scan of the proof that funding has been granted. Please submit your application file via mail to the address:admissions.bagss(at)uni-bamberg.de

This opportunity has expired. It was originally published here:

http://www.uni-bamberg.de/bagss/application