Doctoral Studies

Since winter semester 2019, the Anton Bruckner Private University has been offering jointly managed, structured artistic-academic and academic doctoral programmes in which early-stage researchers – academics as well as artistic researchers – are trained together in basic teaching to think and act in a research-oriented manner. In addition, our doctoral students are supervised in their personal doctoral project by up to three leading internationally active experts in their field.                                                                                          

Through our PARL (Platform for Art and Research Linz) series, we invite guest lecturers from various fields of art and academia and present different approaches in art and research. In the academic year 2022/23 we had guests from Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Belgium, and the USA. Teaching is complemented by workshops and elective courses, ranging from courses on academic writing in English, to briefings on research ethics, and methods of empirical research, which provide students with tools and skills to gain a foothold in the international research community.

In our training, we strive for a modern understanding of knowledge acquisition, in which transdisciplinary thinking and action, the interpenetration of practice and theory, and an ethical approach to people and resources are a matter of course.

Our doctoral students have access to studios for dance, the computer music laboratory Sonic Lab, a modern recording studio and concert halls for a wide range of requirements. They benefit from a lively art and research environment at the university and in the European media city of Linz with its four universities and the Ars Electronica Centre. In addition, we offer our doctoral students a broad professional network from the outset through our collaborations with three renowned Austrian universities and one Swiss university for secondary supervision: the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg, the University of Art Linz, the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, and the Bern University of the Arts (Switzerland).

In the artistic-academic doctoral programme, research fields can be chosen from the following subjects:

  • Historical performance practice
  • Instrumental performance studies
  • Composition
  • Theory and practice of artistic research
  • Contemporary performance practice

Contemporary dance

In the academic doctoral programme, research fields can be chosen from the following subjects:

  • Interpretive research
  • Cultural studies in the field of musicology
  • Musicology
  • Music education

Standard period of study: 6 semesters

Application deadline for the start of the programme in the winter semester 2023/24: 17.02.2024

Prerequisite: The prerequisite for admission to the doctoral programme is the completion of a subject-related diploma or master's degree or an equivalent degree at a recognised post-secondary educational institution.