Postgraduate studies in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Bamberg

The Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences (BAGSS) was established in 2010 to create an innovative working and learning environment for exceptionally qualified doctoral researchers. It has received funding under externer Link folgt the German Excellence Initiative since November 2012.

The School’s ambition is to stimulate and guide cutting-edge research on some of the most crucial challenges faced by modern knowledge-based societies. Modern economies compete for the most creative minds domestically and internationally. Schools and universities help people to develop the skills necessary for them to compete in the labour market. But people’s choices about education and their opportunities in the labour market are influenced by a large number of social, economic and political factors. Therefore, the school seeks to stimulate research in the following inter-connected areas:

*Variations in the ability and opportunity of individuals to acquire the competencies and qualifications necessary to participate in social, economic and political life (Pillar 1: Education, Personal Development and Learning from Early Childhood to Adulthood);

*Patterns of social and economic inequality contributing to variations in access to education – and the choices individuals make about their own and their *Offspring’s education across the life course (Pillar 2: Education and Social Inequality Across the Entire Life Course);

*The consequences of such variations and of demographic developments for labour markets and businesses that are subject to global competition for market shares, investment and human capital (Pillar 3: Changes in Human Capital, Labour Markets and Demographic Structures and their Impact on Social Inequality in Modern Societies);

*The choices of policy makers searching for responses to these challenges, adjusting national and transnational institutions and seeking to secure political control across a complex web of governance layers from the local to the global (Pillar 4: Governance, Institutional Change and Political Behaviour).