Supervision at the Vienna Doctoral School of Social Sciences

The establishment of the Vienna Doctoral School of Social Sciences (ViDSS) has been part of a university-wide initiative of providing structured doctoral education in many different disciplines.

At the Faculty of Social Sciences, the establishment of the doctoral school was led by a faculty-wide task force comprising representatives of all disciplines and a student representative. Between 2019 and 2020, the task force developed the profile and the governance structure of the doctoral school and designed activities and funding programmes for doctoral candidates in the social sciences. In October 2020, the ViDSS was launched.

The ViDSS aims at:

• attracting ambitious and highly qualified doctoral candidates in the social sciences,
• increasing the exchange of experiences among doctoral candidates and supervisors within and across departments,
• enhancing the doctoral candidates’ international experiences and
• improving completion rates.

In addition to a range of activities and funding possibilities for students, the ViDSS regularly organises onboarding workshops as well as networking and information events for supervisors.

Supervisors in the social sciences who are employed with the University of Vienna (subject to an employment contract of 50 % or more) can join the ViDSS. Honorary professors at the Faculty of Social Sciences can join the ViDSS for as long as they maintain close connections to the respective department such as through regular teaching contracts. Participation of supervisors in the ViDSS includes providing active consent to the Code of Good Practice for Doctoral Schools and the willingness to actively participate in the activities organised by the Doctoral School.

Supervisors who retire from the University of Vienna can stay members of the Doctoral School for up to three years after leaving the University. Supervisors who transfer to another University also have the possibility to stay members of the ViDSS for up to three years if they maintain close connections to the University of Vienna such as through regular teaching contracts.

To join the ViDSS as a student member, doctoral candidates need to have at least one supervisor who is a member of the ViDSS. Encouraging students to choose at least one supervisor employed with the University of Vienna aims at fostering the integration of doctoral candidates at the departments of the University. The “internal” supervisor also serves as the main contact person if there are questions or problems regarding a doctoral thesis project.