Career and educational prospects (occupational fields or doctorate)

Career prospects

The Master of Science (M.Sc.) degree qualifies students to take on highly technical tasks (based on engineering metrology, surveying, computer science, digital humanities) in the field of heritage and heritage preservation, in galleries, museums, libraries and and archives and in cultural management at home and abroad.

It enables the evaluation of problems and independent solution of technical and structural-process-related problems in object and damage recording, data archiving, technical building condition and object analysis, the planning of repair and preservation measures as well as the development of intelligent monitoring concepts.

Graduates of the new degree programme have good prospects of carrying out application-oriented projects in practice, being involved in the management of data collections and exchange platforms and helping to shape the future standards and development directions of integrative heritage technologies in public administration, companies and science.

Skills will be valuable in many professional fields, including:

  • Private sector: surveying, building research and planning offices (e.g. building in existing contexts, structural design, building physics in monument preservation), own service office
  • Specialist authorities (e.g. monuments offices, building authorities)
  • Museums and archives
  • Research and science (e.g. Fraunhofer Institute, EURAC Institute, etc)

Excerpt from the accreditation report

"The Master's programme is a special, newly designed programme supported by the Free State of Bavaria in cooperation with HAW Coburg, which focuses on the need for specialists at the interface of heritage conservation and engineering. The aim of educating the next generation of heritage scientists in the age of digitalisation as well as the high future viability is appreciated. The project-oriented focus and the study programme, which is highly geared towards independent work, as well as the networking with neighbouring disciplines are praised. In addition, the intensive and individual supervision of the students is appreciated."

- Excerpt from the accreditation report 2019

Further educational perspective: the doctorate

The Master's degree M.Sc. entitles you, with a suitable grade, to a doctorate at a university, or in a joint project between university and university, e.g. in Digital Technologies in Heritage Conservation.

A joint doctorate between the HS Coburg and the university is made possible by the Bavarian Science Forum (BayWiss), which is also associated with financial support. An orientation with the BayWiss Verbund-Kolleg Digitalisierung would be conceivable here.

Doctoral studies at the University of Bamberg are supported by the connection to the Trimberg Research Academy (TRAC). TRAC offers young academics in particular a broad range of support in all academic career phases. Central elements here are individual counselling, an advanced training programme and information about funding opportunities.

The Department of Heritage Conservation Studies and the Centre for Heritage Conservation Studies and Technologies  (KDWT for short) at the University of Bamberg are ideally suited for doctoral studies in the research field of monument sciences, for example in the technical subjects of the Chair of Digital Technologies in Heritage Conservation (Prof. Dr. Mona Hess) and the Chair of Restoration Sciences (Prof. Dr. Paul Bellendorf), due to the current technical equipment, contacts to heritage objects and museum institutions and current research orientation.

We do not hold a number of scholarships for you and there is not necessarily part of a doctoral program. Therefore, you will have to acquire funding and scholarships before you start your doctorate, and Prof. Dr. Mona Hess is happy to support your application, if your project is suitable. Also keep an eye on the current announcements for jobs as research assistants, as doctoral scholarships are often made available within the framework of externally funded projects.

The doctoral regulations of the Humanities and Cultural Studies offer you the opportunity to do a doctorate in various heritage-related subjects, including Digital Technologies in Heritage Conservation. The doctorate can be completed in German or English. The necessary forms for your application for admission to doctoral studies are provided by the Dean's Office here.

If you are interested in a doctorate in Digital Technologies in Heritage Conservation, please contact Prof. Dr. Mona Hess with an e-mail containing your 2-page project synopsis and an explanation why and how your project will contribute to our research profile.