Quality Management

Dahlem Research School ensures high academic quality for their doctoral programs. Source: Bernd Wannenmacher

Enhancing the quality of structured doctoral education, Dahlem Research School develops and implements standards and guidelines for quality assurance addressing the following three issues.

Doctoral Candidates

• Multi-stage data collection process designed to assess the overall environment of doctoral programs

• Regular evaluation and feedback procedures

Doctoral Programs

• Set up best practice standards for doctoral education including curriculum development and guidelines for supervision qualification.

• Regular assessment of member programs through benchmarking

• Membership in the DRS does not occur automatically but on application. Doctoral programs may apply for membership if they set up regulations in accordance with the DRS Standard Regulations. Once a doctoral program has been accepted, all doctoral candidates of the program can benefit from the services provided by the DRS.

Transferable Skills

• Workshop trainers are recruited and selected on the basis of their professional experience and outstanding qualifications.

• Course assessment ensures the evaluator‘s anonymity.

• Assessment results are communicated with the trainers and compared to outcomes of other workshops of the same semester.

• Assessment and feedback results are analyzed with the trainers in a positive assessment climate, effectively using actionable results for improvement.

• The course program is regularly reviewed and revised to meet the current needs and profiles of course participants.

• All services on offer at Dahlem Research School are reviewed annually. The review involves self-analysis, benchmarking and assessment of the program‘s structure, content and quality in relation to the needs of our doctoral candidates and by reference to national and international standards.