Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences (BIGSSS)

Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences (BIGSSS) integrates excellent areas of graduate education and research at the University of Bremen and Jacobs University into a synergetic inter-university institution designed to be an internationally competitive model of graduate education. BIGSSS' guiding principles are education to excellence, quality assurance, and effective funding.

BIGSSS builds on the experience and institutional structure of both UB's Graduate School of Social Sciences (GSSS), funded as a model institution for the reform of advanced graduate education in Germany, and Jacobs' interdisciplinary social-science graduate programs.

BIGSSS' graduate education and research is built around thematic fields which are integrated under the umbrella theme “Changing Patterns of Social and Political Integration“. The umbrella theme is used to achieve the degree of coherence necessary for fruitful cross-fertilization. The three thematic fields are: “Global Governance and Regional Integration“, “Welfare State, Inequality and Quality of Life“, and “Changing Lives in Changing Socio-Cultural Contexts“.