Information about the curriculum of the PhD program
Student curriculum
The Students’ curricula will be structured to optimise teaching outcomes. The students together with the PhD board and the spokesperson of the program, will nominate a dissertation advisory committee (DAC), consisting of members of the program, an external scientific advisor from our partners or an excellent scientist from abroad. Students meet with their DAC at least once a year. The purpose of the DAC is to provide scientific and personal advice and to assess research directions and progress as to its adequacy over the entire 3 year period. Studies will include coursework of students in immunology, weekly journal clubs and laboratory rotations with methods training. Hereby, all students will have to select two laboratories within the program to learn new methods. Furthermore, students may attend optional classes on special issues, like courses on Animal Experiments and/or Protein Structure Analyses. Once per year, a retreat of the Research Training Group with external scientific advisors will be held to give the students an opportunity to present their data, to assess research progress and to stimulate the interaction of students with experienced scientists. Additionally, each year students have to pass a written examination covering the courses and methods seminars and students must pass all written examinations throughout the three year program. Finally, the summer school will allow the students to acquire early teaching skills under the supervision of their principal investigators and The Center for Didactic Quality Assurance at the University of Mainz. During all terms of the entire period, weekly journal clubs and progress reports will offer the students the opportunity to present and critically discuss their own scientific data and data from the scientific literature in public. This approach will support the capacity of the students to think independently and creatively in laboratory experimentation. As the dissertation comes to a conclusion, the principal investigator and the DAC must approve the quality and originality of the scientific work before the student may write the dissertation. The final dissertation defense includes a public lecture and a formal dissertation defense in public.
The core curriculum for students encompasses the METHCORE, the IMMCORE and the PROCORE programs.
In the METHCORE program, students will benefit from weekly methods seminars and two laboratory rotations with methods training. Students will have the opportunity to select laboratories of principal investigators for two laboratory rotations (2 weeks each). Due to the interdisciplinary approach of the program, graduate students will benefit from a broad spectrum of technologies that are established in the laboratories of the principle investigators.
The IMMCORE program comprises training for PhD students in basic and advanced immunology as well as in clinical immunology using a bench to bedside approach. Courses on “Basic principles of Immunology” and “Immunopathogenesis” will be held by the principal investigators. Subsequently, a 6 month course on “Animal models and bench to bedside research” will be held. Medical students will have the possibility to obtain clinical training over a period of sixth months including clinical case demonstrations and clinical rounds to understand current clinical opportunities and problems with regard to immunotherapy and to discuss potential clinical implications of their own findings in the clinical setting.
The PROCORE program will facilitate and promote the scientific independence of the students. Throughout the three year program, students will learn to present and critically discuss scientific data in weekly journal clubs. This will be supported by soft skill training with special reference to rhetoric training, training in scientific writing and presentation training supervised and conducted by the Center of Didactic Quality Assurance in Mainz. Students will learn to present their own scientific data in the context of the current scientific literature in weekly progress reports. Annual retreats of the program will be held to allow the students to give a formal presentation in front of all principal investigators and selected internal and external advisors. In addition, the annual summer school with selected excellent high school students will allow the students to get first teaching experiences under the supervision of experienced principal investigators and the Center of Didactic Quality Assurance (PD Dr. Herzer) in Mainz.
