DDocs: The Doctoral Council of TU Dresden

In May this year, the 8th Doctoral Council (DDocs) of the TU Dresden was elected. Among the 12 members, who come from all faculties of the TU Dresden, are this year two doctoral students of the Faculty of Business and Economics. In our interview,  Isabell Lippert and István Simon speak about their motives for becoming part of DDocs and the most important goals pursued by the Doctoral Council.

1) Could you please introduce yourself at the beginning. 

Isabell Lippert: I have been at the faculty since June 2021 and work as a research assistant at the Chair of Business Information Systems, esp. Business Engineering. In my dissertation project, I deal with questions of algorithmic management and take a closer look at delivery services. At DDocs I am responsible for external communication and marketing.

István Simon: I was born in Romania, lived in Hungary since I was 12 years old and have been in Germany since 2019. Here I gained two master's degrees (in education and in cultural management). I am a dancer in the ensemble of the Semper Opera. I am writing my PhD as an external doctoral student at the Chair of Business Education and Management Training. I am the vice-chairman of the doctoral council.

What motivated you to run for the Doctoral Council and what projects would you like to tackle during your term?

István Simon: I would like to initiate cross-faculty activities and help to connect doctoral students with very different backgrounds. I am also particularly interested in the development of career paths for young scientists. It would be great to organize a big party for the doctoral students of the TU Dresden. Of course, dance performances would be part of the party program then.

Isabell Lippert: I'm involved with DDocs because it's worth getting to know other people and leaving your own comfort zone. Doctoral students bring different prerequisites with them and have different needs. You can already see that within the faculty. Therefore, our goal is to tackle things that are useful for all PhD students at TU Dresden.

However, we try to give the doctoral students' representation even more clout. We would like to be more present for the doctoral students that we are atv the moment, but for this we need, for example, our own database, our own budget, our own newsletter etc.. We are also in exchange with the doctoral representatives of the other three Saxon universities and have made proposals in the course of the amendment of the Saxon University Freedom Act on how the rights of the doctoral representatives could be anchored in the law.         

How can doctoral students contact you?

István Simon: You can reach us best with the e-mail address promovierendenrat@tu-dresden.de. We meet once a month, so incoming requests are always handled promptly. You can also learn more about DDocs on our website:
https://tu-dresden.de/ga/die-einrichtung/doktorandenkonvent/ziele-und-aufgaben