The PhD Certificate Programme is specially designed for those of you who:

1.      are interested in a statistical or empirical PhD project in your field of interest

2.      have sound knowledge of basic statistics and methodology

3.      are fluent in English

4.      hold a Master or Diploma (or equivalent) in one of the following fields:

• agricultural sciences       
• biosciences
• computer sciences
• economics
• forest sciences
• mathematics/statistics
• medicine/epidemiology
• physics
• psychology
• social sciences

The aim of the programme is to help you to:

• conduct your statistical or empirical PhD project in your field of interest with a sound knowledge in statistics and empirical methods right from the start of your PhD project
• become an expert in statistics and empirical methods in your field of research

You will obtain two certificates:

• PhD in your field of research
• Additional certificate in Applied Statistics

To become a student of the Centre you have to take care of three things.

1. You have to apply at the ZfS (see How to apply)
2. You have to find a supervisor (a member of the Centre at one of the participating institutions)
3. You have to make sure to get yourself an income source (i.e. research assistant at your department, external scholarship, internal scholarship)

Within the three-year programme you will have to:

1. collect credit points within the study programme of the Centre
2. work on your PhD project at your institution

Within the first year of the programme your main focus will lie on the study programme. Therefore, you will attend several courses on current topics on statistical methods and data analysis techniques in the form of lectures, tutorials, reading courses, seminars and computer courses. In the second and third year you will mainly work on your PhD project.

In total you will have to accumulate 60 credit points. These credits will be gained by passing following courses:

First year (roughly half of the credits):

• Several lectures on statistics and empirical methods
• Computer lab courses
• Professional skills

Second and third year (roughly second half of the credits):

• Lectures and seminars on statistics and empirical methods
• Advanced computer lab courses
• Statistical consulting

The members of the Centre belong to various institutions situated at the faculties of Agricultural Science, Biology, Economics, Forest Science, Mathematics, Medicine and Social Science. Depending on the institution of your supervisor, you will be assigned to the relevant participating institution at the beginning of the three-year programme. In this institution you will eventually work on your PhD project. We expect that your PhD project results in a scientific contribution to your field of specialisation while it shows at the same time a large interest in development and application of current statistical methods and software. Finally, you will receive the PhD by the faculty of your institution.

• All obligatory courses are taught in English
• At present, tuition fees are waived and registration fees are less than 400 Euro annually
• Scholarships of the Centre for Statistics are awarded infrequently and are available for outstanding candidates only
• Final exam: Kissing the Gänseliesel

Please contact us!

Georg-August-University Göttingen

Centre for Statistics

Platz der Göttinger Sieben 5

D-37073 Göttingen

Germany

Phone: +49 - 551 - 39 21 100

Fax.     +49 - 551 - 39 7279

Email: sprecher@zfs.uni-goettingen.de