Modules WS 2023/2024

The doctoral consortium is an opportunity to sharpen and deepen both focus and methods of research, supervised by a group of external professors and/or advisors. It is designed to foster the presentational, critical and discursive skills in a group of international peers. By submitting their work-in-progress and interim results to an international doctoral consortium candidates also learn how to position their work in a competitive research environment.
Applications are refereed through an academic committee. Participants benefit from understanding others' experiences and results and receive valuable feedback from consortium chairs and other participants. A joint publication is to result from a consortium. A doctoral consortium will take the form of a multi-institution and often international seminar, workshop or summer school - an example can be found on www.dokonara.org, the consortium on sustainable spatial development our University participates in each year.

The research proposal is a research plan. The contents of the research proposal are governed by the curricula of the doctoral degree programmes. If a cumulative dissertation is intended, it is necessary to mention the publication journals and the number of publications planned. The formal aspects of the research proposal must comply with the "Guidelines for Writing Academic Papers at the University of Liechtenstein".

In the colloquium on the research proposal, the doctoral student shall present his/her dissertation project and provide reasons for his/her chosen approach.

This module is a cross-faculty elective course of all PhD programmes of the University of Liechtenstein. It is a joint course, involving students from different schools, in order to broaden the students` horizon beyond their individual disciplinary focus and to enable them to reflect and discuss their own work from the perspective of different disciplines.

The course is organized in form of a Doctoral Consortium, in which participants present their research and discuss it with the faculty and fellow PhD students of the course. The primary objective of the research colloquium is to present and justify the PhD students' research in an interdisciplinary research colloquium.

Assessment by the professors enables candidates to appraise if their research ideas meet the requirements and goals of a dissertation. Since the research colloquium is mentored by an interdisciplinary academic committee, this module also serves to further develop the communicative and social competences of the students.

Students receive feedback on their research by faculty members of different faculties. Moreover, they benefit from listening to the other students' experiences and results. As a research colloquium the module aims at deepening both, methodological and professional research skills of the students. In addition, the module is designed to position and reflect their work in academic research communities beyond their own fields.

The interdisciplinary nature of the course is an important element to enable the students to engage with other in making contributions of value to society. We understand that such solutions do not come from single disciplines but live on the interdisciplinary discourse, which requires both methodological as well as conceptual and social skills, which are delivered in this course.

Students benefit from listening to the other students' experiences and debating results with a focus on the specific disciplines, styles of inquiry, and learning cultures at the University of Liechtenstein. Key elements include the problematization, research question, relevant theoretical lenses and conceptual frameworks, specific strategies of inquiry, and measures to comply with the respective research standards.

This module addresses the researcher's ability to manage projects, work autonomously, think analytically, and be creative, inquisitive, and original.