Quality Assurance

Quality assurance of the doctorate in mathematics and natural sciences is one of the most important tasks of GAUSS. This is reflected in the responsibilities of the GAUSS Managing Board, which decides on the admission of new supervisors and the implementation of new doctoral programs according to clearly defined high standards. Likewise, the admission of new PhD students by the doctoral programs is based on a careful evaluation. Regular reports by the PhD students and meetings with their thesis advisory committee are the backbone for regular feedback and individual assessment of the progress that has been made in doctoral research projects.

Professional management structures of the graduate school are in place not only to provide service and support to the students, but also to monitor the quality of the qualification program offered by GAUSS on the basis of online course evaluations by the participants, curricular planning meetings and feedback sessions with student representatives.

GAUSS and its doctoral programs are subject to regular external and internal evaluations including the assessment of its DFG- or Leibniz-funded Research Training Groups and the five International Max Planck Research Schools. Furthermore, this high-standard evaluation process is also extended to the support of early-career researchers based in Collaborative Research Centers, research clusters or other externally funded research alliances under the umbrella of GAUSS. The established structures and measures of the GGNB, hosting about one third of all GAUSS students, were successfully evaluated in two competition rounds of the German Excellence Initiative and are further endorsed by biennial site visits of its Scientific Advisory Board.

Most doctoral degree programs in GAUSS have also been accredited by the Central Evaluation- and Accreditation Agency Hannover (ZEvA) awarding the quality seal of the Accreditation Council. Moreover, GAUSS takes advantage of additional measures for quality assurance implemented by the University of Göttingen such as performance-based allocation of resources in teaching (LOM Teaching).

Annual Reports of the Graduate School

The progress of GAUSS is summarised in annual reports (in German language only), and communicated to the Presidential Board of the University and the mathematics and science faculties, as well as to the offices of the doctoral degree programmes.