Advanced Research in Urban Systems (ARUS) – International promovieren in Deutschland (IPID)

For quite some time the University of Duisburg-Essen has regarded  the ever-expanding process of global urbanization as a central challenge for present and future societies. Thus, it dedicates a substantial part of its research and teaching efforts to meet the manifold challenges and to solve the problems that accompany this megacity trend. Hence, as early as 2005, the University of Duisburg-Essen decided to establish the topic area “Urban Systems” as one of its university-wide Main Research Areas. The purpose of this concentration is to fathom the most important aspects of urban development in scientific depth as well as in a comprehensive, inter- and transdisciplinary manner. The structured PhD programme ARUS established in the autumn of 2010 is based on previous academic achievements in selected fields within the Main Research Area "Urban Systems”. It offers doctoral students the opportunity to explore their research interests in this interdisciplinary and international framework.

International Promovieren in Deutschland: a PhD programme of the DAAD - funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

ARUS is one of the structured PhD programmes established in 2010 with funding from the  German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in the framework of the programme “International promovieren in Deutschland“(IPID). With these PhD programmes, the DAAD supports the implementation of recommendations of the “Wissenschaftsrat” and the „Hochschulrektorenkonferenz” concerning the reform of PhD programmes in Germany. The distribution of funds within these programmes concentrates solely on already existing excellent research structures.

For further information please consult the following websites:

http://www.daad.de/hochschulen/internationalisierung/ipid/14086.de.html.

or here

http://www.uni-due.de/international/

Participating Departments:

The following Professors and departments involved in ARUS:

• Anglophone Studies - British and Anglophone Literature and Culture, Faculty of Humanities, Prof. Dr. Jens Martin Gurr (Project Director)
• Institute of City Planning and Urban Design (Institut für Stadtplanung und Städtebau (ISS)), Civil Engineering, Prof. Dr.-Ing. J. Alexander Schmidt
• Department of Geography, Faculty of Biology and Geography, represented by Prof. Dr. Rudolf Juchelka (Speaker of the institute and board member of ARUS), Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Kuttler, Prof. Hans-Werner Wehling, Prof. Dr. Ulrike Ohl.
• Professor for Theory and Practice of Social Work, Center for Social Work and Social Policy, Faculty of Educational Sciences, Prof. Dr. Fabian Kessl
• Municipal Water and Waste Management, Faculty of Engineering, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Renatus Widmann
• Transport Systems and Logistics, Faculty of Engineering, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Bernd Noche
• Communication Science,  Faculty of Humanities Workgroup Prof. Dr. Reichertz, Prof. Dr. Jo Reichertz 

Graduate students in the ARUS programme

Graduate students are admitted to the PhD programme by means of a competitive admission  process consisting of two steps. As an interdisciplinary programme, ARUS appeals to those graduates of engineering, planning, spatial, social and humanities courses, who locate their objects of study in an urban context. For further information see “Application”.

International orientation

ARUS cooperates with the following universities:

Supervision

As a structured PhD programme ARUS is seeking to shorten the graduation process. At the same time it offers a heightened quality of supervision. The main features of the supervision system are, e.g. the combination of group and individual supervisions, the offering of seminars in the third and fifth term ("Agora of young researchers") and the formal monitoring of the graduates’ work in progress.

Students are also offered a non-academic support programme with various forms of support and events.

Purpose of ARUS

Development of expertise and reflexive competences (including occupational prospects in science and practice) for the sustainable development of urban spaces. The scientific studies will enable the graduates of ARUS to work in highly responsible positions due to their competences in identifying, describing and analyzing complex urban problems, in developing solutions and supporting their successful implementation.

Target Group

ARUS offers graduates of engineering, planning, spatial, social and humanities courses a structured three-year research programme at a high scientific level while reducing the time to completion of a PhD.

Main features

• international orientation (German / English language;  research contacts e.g. with ARUS partner universities),
• interdisciplinary approach,
• combination of individual and group supervision,
• structured admission process,
• broad research horizon in urban research,
• participation in accompanying courses,
• participation in international conferences,
• formal monitoring of the progress,
• possibility of acquiring teaching experience (through a competition for teaching assignments in the "Urban Systems" Masters programme),
• regular PhD colloquia,
• close organizational and professional ties to the degree programme “Urban Systems”,
• institutional support for career planning, e.g. by offering a ‘Research  Agora', that organizes contacts to regional research institutes.

Duration

six terms (three years)