Freie University Berlin China Scholarship Council Doctoral Awards in Germany 2023

One highly successful example of the university’s efforts to recruit qualified junior scientists and scholars is its work with the China Scholarship Council (CSC). As part of a special program sponsored by the Chinese government, the CSC awards about 6,000 foreign scholarships each year to Chinese doctoral candidates, most of them from the top 50 universities in China. Since 2008, Freie Universität has maintained a primary partnership with the CSC that makes it easier to recruit qualified junior scholars and scientists from China for doctoral programs at all departments of Freie Universität. The Beijing Office of Freie Universität disseminates information about available positions, collects applications, supports professors in selecting candidates, and advises candidates on all matters relating to their applications and, if successful, their studies in Germany. The success rate among those candidates for a CSC scholarship, once they have been accepted by the university, is very high. Scholarship recipients can decide whether to participate as “sandwich candidates,” working at their home universities during the first and final years of the doctoral program and spending one to two years in between in Berlin; or whether they wish to complete a full four-year doctoral program in Berlin. Thanks to the CSC program, the number of doctoral candidates from China at Freie Universität Berlin has increased from 24 (winter semester 06/07) to currently over 510. The next round of the CSC PhD program starts this year. Doctoral candidates who have completed their Master's degree in Germany or elsewhere abroad are available to apply as well.