• How do doctorates proceed?
• What role do personal and university conditions play in the success of a doctorate?
• What motivates doctoral candidates to pursue an academic career?

In order to better assess the importance of origin, gender, funding, and other conditions for doctoral success, Freie Universität is participating in the longitudinal study of doctoral researchers and doctorate holders, the National Academic Panel Study (Nacaps) of the German Center for Higher Education and Science Research (DZHW).

Nacaps systematically collects data on doctoral conditions, career paths, and general living conditions of doctoral researchers and doctorate holders in Germany. More than 40,000 doctoral researchers from over 60 universities, including approximately 2,000 doctoral researchers of Freie Universität, have participated since 2019.

Every two years in February, a new cohort of doctoral researchers will be invited by email from Dahlem Research School to participate in the survey. Participation is, of course, voluntary and anonymous. It will not be possible to draw conclusions about individual persons.

Freie Universität asks all doctoral researchers to participate in this scientific study. A realistic picture of these conditions, especially at Freie Universität and in a Germany-wide comparison with now more than 60 participating universities, can only emerge if participation is high and many doctoral researchers take part in the survey. Dahlem Research School would like to use the results above all to review its support measures for doctoral researchers and to further develop them to meet actual needs. We therefore look forward to meaningful figures from as many participants as possible!

Further information on the survey may be found under the following links.