Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences - BAGSS Starter Scholarships

The Starter Scholarship is awarded for a one year period only. During that time, recipients are expected to develop an excellent research proposal that will be used to apply for further funding, e.g. for scholarships from the many German sponsorship organisations.

The scholarships are available from 01 October 2024 for the duration of one year. We invite highly qualified graduates from the fields of Sociology, Psychology, Educational Science, Political Science, Labour and Educational Economics, Demography and Statistics.

Specialised research agendas are arranged in four thematic pillars:

1. Education Personal Development and Learning from Early Childhood to Adulthood
2. Educational and Social Inequality Across the Entire Life Course
3. Changes in Human Capital Labour Markets and Demographic Structures and Their Impact on Social Structures in Modern Societies
4. Governance Institutional Change and Political Behaviour

When to apply?

Applications for the Starter Scholarships (available from 01 April 2024) until 15 March 2024.

What application materials are required?

In order to be considered for a Starter Scholarship, your application must include the following documents:

1. A cover letter that demonstrates your acquaintance with our programme and your qualifications in your subject area. Please, use this letter also to briefly indicate which BAGSS Pillar(s) suit(s) your research interest best and name at least one BAGSS faculty member who could serve as a supervisor for your project.
2. Your complete CV - including full contact information.
3. An abstract of your research proposal (see below #4) of at most 1 page. 
4. Your research proposal of the planned dissertation project (only one research proposal) on at most 4 pages (font Arial, size 11, 1.5 line spacing).
5. A work schedule. In the work schedule (1 page), planned periods and destinations of research or field trips including a rough cost estimate should be included.
6. Scans of the following transcripts and certificates. a) School leaving certificates giving the right of entry to higher education in your home country, with individual grades. b) All university transcripts, for the bachelor's, master's or any other degrees, stating all individual grades. c) All university diploma or degree certificates indicating the final grade, including an explanation of the grading system (i.e. maximum attainable grade, minimum grade to pass, etc.). If your transcripts or certificates have been issued in other languages than English or German, then certified translations need to be provided.
7. Please include also a short self-written statement about your knowledge of German. While the programme is conducted entirely in English, willingness to learn German or improve existing German language skills is expected.
8. A concise statement on your knowledge of social science research methods. This short, self-written description (not more than half a page, font Arial, size 11, 1.5 line spacing) should contain information on your methodological training or practical experience in applying methods.
9. A Privacy Policy Agreement must be signed. Download the document here(318.0 KB, 8 pages).
10. In our online application form, you will be asked to name two referees, whom BAGSS could contact for a reference regarding your academic performance. You are required to ask the possible referees for their agreement before naming them in the application form and submitting their contact details (mail address and phone number).

Please, do not attach any documents other than those requested, otherwise your application will not be accepted.

All application materials must be submitted in English (except for certificates and transcripts, which may also be provided in German).

Shortlisted candidates will be asked to provide us with the original or certified copies of their CV, certificates/transcripts and, in case you are not a native speaker, documentation of English proficiency. English proficiency can be documented through

• one of the following English tests: UNIcert III (pass), CAE (pass), TOEFL (minimum score of 95), IELTS (minimum band score of 7) – please attach a copy of the official test results;
• or an academic degree completed entirely in English, i.e. with a final thesis written in English. If your degree certificate and transcripts are not clear in that regard, please provide a confirmation letter of English proficiency from the degree-granting institution.
• Exceptions are made for nationals of the following countries: Australia, Canada, Ireland, United Kingdom, United States of America and New Zealand.

How to submit your application?

All documents need to be submitted as a single PDF (max. 30 MB). In this single PDF, you must arrange your documents in the following order:

1. Cover Letter
2. Curriculum Vitae
3. Abstract
4. Research Proposal
5. Work Schedule
6. Academic degree certificates and university grade transcripts
7. Proof of language proficiency
8. Short self-written statement about your knowledge of German
9. Statement of knowledge of research methods
10. Privacy Policy Agreement

Applications that are not submitted in this order will not be accepted. Free software for creating PDFs and merging them into a single document is available on the internet, e.g. the PDFcreator. Please, use your surname to name your application file (SURNAME.pdf; make sure to avoid special characters).