Preparing for your Doctoral Studies
Before you register for a doctoral program, you should ask yourself a few questions. What topic do you want to write your dissertation on? Who will be your supervisor/mentor? And: What does pursuing a doctoral degree entail?
Do you need guidance in this process? Then you've come to the right place.
Finding a topic for your dissertation can be solved in many different ways.
Perhaps you would like to continue the topic of your master's thesis by expanding on it, shedding light on new aspects or addressing further questions.
Or you may have a completely new idea that you would like to delve into in the course of your doctorate.
Or you have come across a job advertisement in your research area (perhaps at your Institute or Faculty) that requires you to write a dissertation.
Or your supervisor suggests topics that are interesting or desiderata for your joint research area.
Regardless of how you arrive at your topic, it is important that you discuss it with your supervisor before enrolling. Your supervisor must agree to your choice of topic in order to be able to supervise you in the subsequent work on this topic.
A productive working relationship between doctoral candidate and thesis supervisor is an essential element for the successful completion of the doctorate.
Your (first) supervisor must be a professor at the University of Graz in the subject area in which you would like to write your dissertation. Ideally, your supervisor is already working on research questions similar to yours.
If your doctoral programme requires admission to a doctoral school, your supervisor must also be a member of the doctoral school.
In principle, it is your responsibility to find a supervisor for your dissertation project. To do this, you can, for example, research the faculties and institutes to find out which professors work on which topics, or research who works on similar topics at the University of Graz in the course of preliminary considerations on your research topic.
What you can expect from a good supervisor and other information can be found on the page about Supervision for you.