(Post)Doctoral Students
Pursuing a doctoral degree at the Kiel Institute
The Institute places great emphasis on the training and support of doctoral students. They receive their doctoral degrees from several partner universities and are enrolled in their doctoral programs. Often, this is the well-established Doctoral Programme in Quantitative Economics at Kiel University. There are two tracks to pursue a doctoral degree at the Institute.
Academic career track: the Kiel Advanced Studies Program (ASP)
The Kiel Advanced Studies Program (ASP) - Kiel Institute is a comprehensive, nearly five-year doctoral program beginning each September to provide our graduate students with more focused training, support, and access to top international economists.
Participants are admitted in a highly competitive process once a year and we aim for a cohort of four-to-six new doctoral students each year. There is a clear commitment that at least half of the admitted candidates will be women. The ASP guarantees that admitted students receive a world-class education in international economics, tailored for a career in academia, while providing sufficient time to complete their dissertations.
Applied research and policy track
On a second track, positions for doctoral students are offered as part of a specific research group. These positions are advertised individually, whenever there is an open position. Open positions can be found here: Job Vacancies - Kiel Institute. In most cases, these doctoral students work on pre-defined and typically very applied (third party) projects and are expected to link the dissertation work to these projects. Doctoral students in this second track usually receive a 75% position at EG 13 salary scale; split positions with other institutions are possible. They are offered support and are expected to complete most of their coursework within the first year. ASP courses are open to them, and transitions into the ASP program are possible for exceptional candidates who meet the high ASP standards. This track is also designed for researchers who wish to pursue careers outside academia, including careers in think tanks, international organizations and ministries, or in the private sector. Contract extensions depend on available funding, but we are committed to ensuring that researchers can devote sufficient time to the completion of their dissertation and to helping them seek and apply for follow-up external funding.
For questions regarding the support for junior researchers please contact
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How to further pursue your career
The Kiel Institute also offers career opportunities for postdocs and has launched the Hirschman Postdoc Program - Kiel Institute. The Institute ensures that postdocs are supported in their career development, that there is room for pursuing own research interests and supports external stays of various lengths at universities as well as research and policy institutions, which are also open to advanced Ph.D. students. A limited number of junior professorships are available.
Many postdocs eventually leave the Institute and accept positions at universities, ministries, international organizations, and private firms. Recently, postdocs have, e.g., taken up professorships in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States or joined the European Central Bank, the Swiss National Bank, the OECD, the FAO and German federal ministries.
