Setting Course: Starting Your PhD Well
A PhD is a project that runs for several years – and most of the ones that go wrong don't fail at the end, they drift off course at the start: goals stay vague, the topic goes unexamined, supervision is left to chance. This workshop puts those early decisions on the table while they can still be made deliberately, and turns them into a plan participants can actually work with.
The workshop deliberately works with the reality of your own institution: participants go through their doctoral regulations, get to know the programs and contact points available locally, and anchor their planning where they are actually earning their PhD. For questions too individual for the group, the workshop can close with a personal coaching session.
Content
The workshop content is hands-on and conveyed through short input sessions, individual and group work, and interactive exchange formats.
- What a PhD demands: requirements of the starting phase
- Developing constructive goals (including SMART, WOOP)
- The right PhD topic: analysis and sharpening
- Clarifying the context: doctoral regulations and your individual situation
- The PhD timeline: working backward from the end
- Shaping supervision: doctoral advisor, thesis committee, mentors
- Knowing and using your institution's resources and contact points
- Recognizing and preventing typical pitfalls
- Skills profile: what additional qualifications do I need – now and later?
Nach dem Workshop können die Teilnehmenden …
- See the PhD as a multi-year project and gauge what the starting phase demands
- Develop and pressure-test viable PhD goals (including SMART, WOOP)
- Check your own PhD topic for viability and motivational strength
- Actively shape the supervision relationship and build a support network
- Leave the workshop with an individual timeline, your own skills profile, and concrete next steps
Key Facts
Duration & Format
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Interested?
- Tailored: Every format is customized to your context – from methodology to scheduling
- Practical: Grounded in academia, field-tested, and immediately applicable in everyday research
- Efficient: Clear structures and methods deliver fast results
- Sustainable: Materials and transfer tasks secure the learning effect long-term
- Motivating: Interactive formats boost engagement and team spirit