Curriculum 

Curriculum overview and credits


⇒ Please read the Admission page for an update!




Doctoral research project

Throughout the three-year program doctoral candidates will work on their research projects.The second and third year will be dedicated almost exclusively to research and dissertation writing.
 

Teaching program


Teaching weeks (21 CP)

Each course is conducted either as a week-long block course (30 hours of teaching) or as a weekly course during the semester (2 hours/week × 15 weeks).

First semester (October - February)
1  Neuroanatomy and Neurophysiology (3 CP)
2  Basic Philosophical Concepts and Philosophy of Mind (3 CP)
3  Cognitive Neuroscience (3 CP)
4  Clinical Neuroscience (3 CP)
5  Ethics of Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence (international winter school) (3 CP)

Second semester (April - July)
6  Neuroimaging (3 CP)
7  Language and the Brain (3 CP)

Candidates take written exams at the end of each of the classes. Exams will be graded according to the German grading system: 1.0–1.3 A=excellent; 1.7–2.0 B=very good; 2.3–3.0 C=good; 3.3 D=satisfactory; 3.7–4.0 E=sufficient; less than 4.0 FX/F fail.

Examples of additional courses without CP:
– Current issues in philosophy and neuroscience
– Matlab, Python, R

Key competencies’ courses (5 CP)

  • Good Scientific Practice (1.25 CP) (recommended for first year)
  • Scientific writing (1.25 CP) (recommended for first year)
  • Scientific presentation (1.25 CP) (recommended for second year)
  • Grant-application writing (1.25 CP) (recommended for third year)

See also: Key competencies courses

Presentations, lectures, workshops (5 CP)

  • Conference attendance with own talks or posters
  • Journal and methods clubs of cohorts
  • Annual research reviews in poster presentations, lab presentations or colloquia
  • Annual academic retreats (self organized, if available)
  • Participation in international lecture series

 

This page last updated on: 23 July 2026


Contact
Dr. Dirk Mende
mb-education@hu-berlin.de