Purpose

Under the Japanese – German Graduate Externship, Japanese and German universities work together to carry out joint research and education activities at the graduate level. In practice, Japanese and German doctorial students make alternate visits to the counterpart country’s universities where they engage in research and education activities. Japanese and German graduate schools also mutually send young researchers including their academic teaching professionals and post-doctoral fellows to the counterpart country’s universities. Through the implementation of an International Joint PhD Degree (hereinafter referred to as “JD”) or Double PhD Degree (hereinafter referred to as “DD”) program, the program aims to promote the systematic academic exchange between graduate schools in Japan and Germany, while helping both to foster young researchers in doctoral programs and to advance international joint research.

Program Contents

1. Students who are enrolled in a doctoral course (a doctoral program, in case of a 5-year integrated master's-doctoral program) are sent to the graduate schools in Germany (including extension programs) to receive the coordinated education and research guidance, including that related to preparing their doctoral dissertations.
2. Academic teaching professionals are sent to the graduate schools in Germany to give lectures and research guidance, including that related to a preparation of doctoral dissertation.
3. Activities such as joint seminars of which main component is a doctoral students and young researchers’ research results presentation are conducted.
4. It seeks to establish an International Joint PhD Degree (JD or DD) program within a tenure of the project.

Expected Results

1. Internationalizing and raising the standard of graduate school education
2. Promoting of systematic development, raising international compatibility and reliability of educational curricula.

Implementation

The program is carried out based on a memorandum of understanding (MOU) concluded in April 2005 between JSPS and DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft)

Cost Sharing

JSPS and DFG provide funding to their respective country’s universities to defray the costs for the exchange of doctoral students, young researchers including postdocs, and teaching professionals and to hold joint seminars in their countries.

For past information, please refer to this page.