Max Planck Society Launches International PhD Programs

The International Max Planck Research Schools (IMPRS) fit right in with the vigorous efforts by Germany and its neighbors to woo foreign students. Launched last year by the Max Planck Society (MPG), Germany’s foremost research organization, the new PhD programs are intended to stanch brain drain, combat plummeting enrollments in science, and forge long-term international collaborations.

The schools are also intended to tighten the ties between Max Planck Institutes and partner universities, which will bestow the degrees. The idea, says MPG president Hubert Markl, “is to join forces and produce synergies. This offers opportunities from two sides: University doctoral students get easier access to research resources and the Max Planck Institutes get more access to students.”

The first 10 IMPRS programs started up last fall. Half are in physics and related areas: astrophysics (Munich), biomimetic self-organization (Potsdam), cell membrane structure and function (Frankfurt), plasma physics (Greifswald), and polymer physics (Mainz). The plan is to open a total of 25 or 30 schools in the next few years, with space for 500–600 top-notch students; about half of the scholarship money will be tagged for foreigners.

“The format of the schools is rather flexible and each school can develop its own structure,” says Reinhard Lipowsky, the spokesman for the IMPRS for biomimetics. “However, the main goal is always the same: to attract good PhD students from abroad.”

In addition to prestige, the schools offer a broader education and more personal attention than is typical in Germany at the PhD level, and courses are in English. In Germany, says Werner Becker, coordinator of the IMPRS for astrophysics, it’s common for PhD students to become “top experts in their field but often at the cost of the broadness of their education. We intend to make our students more competitive for the international market by giving them a broader education.”

The MPG is spending about DM 3 million ($1.4 million) on the schools this year, and plans to increase that, but the bulk of costs are paid by the host Max Planck Institutes and their partners. For more information, see http://www.mpg.de/english/institut/imprs .