PhD, future career pathway also in Germany!

Only in Germany so far, most of the students choose or are more or less forced to work on a 1-2 year (research) thesis in order to be awarded a Dr.med. degree. This "doctor" degree is absolutely required for being accepted in society (e.g. your own pratise) at the moment.

However, at the moment there is a lot of discussion going on if the "Dr.med" thesis is still necessary for everybody and if it should not be abolished at all in Germany. The consequence would be that like everywhere else in the world, medical students would graduate much quicker with an MD.

Now then, of course, comes the problem. How can we prepare German medical students for future research careers?
One solution is the founding of so called "programs of excellence" for interested medical students who are trained during their graduate studies for future lab work and science education.

Then after graduation, these students are good candidates for the international 3-year PhD programs. The "PhD" degree is thought to be a requirement for a university career in Germany in the near future.

In the past years, a number of PhD programs were established in Germany (http://www.mh-hannover.de/kliniken/immun/phd-net/).

One of the best is the international MD/PhD program "Molecular Medicine" at Hannover Medical School (http://www.mh-hannover.de/studium/phd), which takes a leading role in Germany and was accreditated as the first German PhD program according to European stadards (ECTS) in December 2003.

Thus, Germany is on its best way to establish similar structures for the education of young medical doctors to the rest of the world.

Von: kruse