Scientific soft-skill / key competencies courses
NEW: Website for BUA Graduates Studies Support Program
Berlin University Alliance - Graduate Studies Support Program
The new webpage lists (among other features) all BUA workshop offers!
NEW: Budget points
In September 2024 BUA introduced a new feature: Everyone who is eligible to register for BUA workshops will automatically receive 24 budget points per semester to book workshops.
One budget point corresponds to one work unit, i.e. one hour of workshop time (not 45 minutes). Once your budget for the term is used up, you will no longer be able to book workshops at that particular university.
The budget is automatically reset at the beginning of each booking period for the following term. Remaining budget points from the previous term cannot be carried over to the next term. From September 2024 you will be able to check your budget balance at any time on your Open Campus profile page.
Note 1: As doctoral candidate at M&B, you have a budget at each of the participating Berlin universities!
Note 2: You will have to re-register every semester at HU at any of the other universities where you wish to book courses. Subsequently, the M&B managements will be asked to confirm your membership/legitimacy.
Note 3: Please register as the person/doctoral candidate that you are, i.e. with your official affiliation as a doctoral candidate at Charité or HU or FU ... and the correct faculty. Below these entries there will be a separate field for your membership in the Berlin School of Mind and Brain.
Note 4: You can either register once you wish to book a course (we will then have to confirm your membership/legitimacy) - with the disadvantage that you will have to wait for us to confirm your membership/legitimacy which may take a few days OR you can register at the start of the semester (we will then confirm your membership/legitimacy) which has the advantage that you will be very quick in booking courses and will not have to wait for a response from us.
Link for registration: https://hu.opencampus.com/de/user/register
Cancellation policy
If you are unable to attend a workshop for which you have registered, you should cancel it up to two weeks in advance. The budget points for each workshop cancelled up to two weeks in advance will be credited to your account and you can use them to attend another workshop. If you do not attend without cancelling in good time, the budget points will be forfeited.
Questions for Humboldt Graduate School workshop team: hgs-workshops@hu-berlin.de
(A) Berlin University Alliance courses
During the current period of the national excellence initiative (2018–2025), most courses and services offered by the Berlin member universities of Berlin University Alliance (BUA) will be open to all members of these institutions. Many courses and services will be free of charge.
The graduate centers all offer transferable skills courses (scientific soft skills) and many further courses and services such as project management, intercultural and general communication training, mentoring programs, conflict consultation, information about family support work-life balance.
Most courses and services are available to all doctoral candidates and postdoctoral researchers in Berlin, i.e. all doctoral or postdoctoral members of M&B are entitled to books courses. Please find and book your favorite topics.
Direct links to course offers of the BUA graduate centers:
– New website with workshop list for all BUA universities: Berlin University Alliance - Graduate Studies Support Program
– Humboldt Graduate School, HU Berlin: News and online offers
– Humboldt Graduate School, HU Berlin: Transferable skills courses
– Dahlem Research School, FU Berlin
– Charité, Graduate Studies Support
– Scientific Continuing Education, TU Berlin
If courses cost fees, please see section (B) below which explains which fee-charging courses on key competencies you may or may not book:
(B) Mandatory scientific soft-skill / key competencies courses for M&B program
General principles:
A: If you are a confirmed M&B doctoral candidate, register with the HU Open Campus tool to make your future booking of courses easier: https://hu.opencampus.com/de/user/register
B: Many courses which you will attend will be offered through Humboldt Graduate School (HGS) at HU Berlin.
C: But you can also book any of the other BUA workshops: Berlin University Alliance - Graduate Studies Support Program - Workshop List for all BUA universities.
Note: With each university you have a separate budget for courses, and with each university you will have to register once again.
D: If courses are not free, but cost fees that M&B would have to cover, you may select only one fee-charging course per person from each category 1–4 during the course of your doctorate. You will have to check with M&B in advance whether the costs will be met by the program!Therefore, if you would like to take a fee-charging course for which M&B does not cover the costs, you must either pay the costs yourself or ask whether your institute or your supervisor would contribute to the costs.
E: Course names will vary, and we are trying to stay up-to-date with titles. If you cannot find a course listed below and are in doubt about its suitability, please check with the M&B management: Send course title, course description, name of trainer, name of university, duration/number of hours to: mb-education@hu-berlin.de
(1) Good Scientific Practice (first year)
Good Scientific Practice / Research Integrity / Research Ethics / Data Publishing / Research Data Management / Open Data / Gute wissenschaftliche Praxis / Rechte und Verantwortung in der Forschung.
Please note: Data management courses by the HU computing center or the HGS basic online course Good Scientific Practice are recommended, but will not be accepted as a Good Scientific Practice course for the M&B doctoral program.
(2) Scientific presentation (first year)
Scientific Presenting / Slide Writing & Storylining / Poster Presentations, Poster Writing / Rhetoric and Speaking in Public / Keeping Your Talk Fresh.
(3) Scientific writing (second year)
Scientific Writing / Academic Writing / Wissenschaftliches Schreiben.
(4) Grant proposal writing (third year)
Optional:
Defending (end of doctorate, after thesis submission)
Dissertation defense coaching / Preparing for the disputation / Preparing for the thesis defence
(C) Course certificates & your transcript of records
We will be happy to list these courses on the transcript of records which you will receive from M&B once you have completed the program. Therefore, after the completion of a course, always send a scan of the attendance certificate to Dr. Dirk Mende: mb-education@hu-berlin.de
YourLastName_Presentation ( = attendance certificate for the Scientific Presentation course)
YourLastName_ScientificWriting ( = attendance certificate for the ScientificWriting course)
YourLastName_GoodScientificPractice ( = attendance certificate for the GoodScientificPractice course)
YourLastName_GrantWriting ( = attendance certificate for the GrantWriting course)
(D) Rules and regulations for attending HGS courses
(1) Your registration for courses is binding!
(2) For your information: Unless courses are free for M&B (= e.g., paid through the Berlin University Alliance or HU Berlin), M&B will have to pay on average 250€ per course day for each M&B participant (some courses are considerably more expensive).
(3) Cancellation Policy at HGS (for FU, TU, Charité Berlin cancellation policies, please find out when booking):
HGS Cancellation Policy
Please note that this registration is binding, this means participation may be cancelled up to 14 days in advance without any reason given. If the participation is cancelled after that, the member program of the doctoral candidate or the doctoral candidate themselves has to cover incurring costs. Last minute cancellations due to illness are only acceptable with a medical certificate. If a place is not taken without notifying the Humboldt Graduate School, it can cause exclusion from further workshops. Please be aware that you are also taking away another doctoral candidate’s opportunity to join the workshop.
- To prevent incurring costs for you and our program, participation must be cancelled at least 14 days in advance by writing to hgs-workshops@hu-berlin.de and mb-education@hu-berlin.de
- A cancellation owing to illness at less than 14 days in advance is only acceptable with a doctor’s certificate (Krankschreibung).
See also information about budget points above! No-shows will result in loss of budget points.
(E) Other available courses and workshops through HGS, DRS, etc. / Berlin University Alliance
Should theses courses cost fees, they will not be covered by M&B.
- Writing: Writing Abstracts / Writing Review Articles / Publishing Research Articles / Publishing Journal Articles / Scientific Argumentation / BUA Writing Retreats (in En or De) / Wie wird aus meiner Forschung ein guter Fachartikel
- Presenting & Communicating: Speaking with confidence and impact / Self-presentation in public: Work on body, voice and charisma / Media training / Communication in intercultural and interdisciplinary teams
- Project management: Project management / Get your things done / Getting started / Kick off your doctorate, etc.
- Career: Annual career days / Career development courses / opportunities / Plan B courses (= careers outside the Academy)
- Support & Mental health: One-to-one mentoring, peer mentoring, conflict consultation, Scholar Minds
- Teaching: Didactics / Teaching skills for junior scientists
- Start-up: Business start-up courses
