Interested parties

• Why a doctorate?
• What motivates people to achieve the highest academic degree?
• What is the fascination of working intensively on a research question or research topic over a very long period of time?
• What (interdisciplinary) skills are acquired during the doctoral process?

The phenomenon of "motivation" can provide answers to these questions. Motivation is understood as the drive that drives people to pursue certain goals and to make efforts to achieve them (Michalke, 2021, Motivation fördern und erhalten, Springerverlag, pp. 239-258). For doctoral candidates, motivation is particularly diverse. It ranges from curiosity and the urge to solve scientific problems to the desire for academic recognition, the presence of social influences and the development of new career prospects, such as a professorship as a long-term goal.

A doctorate at a university of applied sciences offers the opportunity to conduct application-oriented research in smaller university structures.

The research project is being worked on continuously and intensively. Important scientific skills are acquired in the process, such as the ability to analyze, quickly grasp complex issues or understand cause-and-effect relationships. In addition, doctoral candidates acquire personal skills such as perseverance, persistence and the ability to deal positively with setbacks.

The process of gaining a doctorate also involves being enthusiastic again and again, convincing others of your ideas and engaging with new issues or even rethinking them. The focus of a doctorate is always on gaining scientific knowledge.