The Executive Board recently agreed to increase the available budget for programmes. PhD candidates at the UT have to take 30 ECTs worth of courses, such as courses focussing on academic skills, didactics, writing skills, and their own field.
Academic skills
‘As of September, first-year PhD candidates can take a basic academic skills module,’ says Van Dijk. ‘This module’s main focus will be on writing skills, information gathering skills, and presentation skills, as well as scientific integrity and data management. After that, they will be able to choose their own subjects, either within the UT or at an external institution. We feel it is important for PhD candidates to be able to take charge of their learning process, and as such want to create as few mandatory elements as possible.’
Introductory course
Another change is the addition of an introductory course for PhD candidates who will be teaching. ‘This course is being developed by the Centre of Expertise in Learning and Teaching (CELT),’ says Van Dijk. ‘It is an important course, as we do not want to put PhD candidates in front of a classroom unprepared, and because we want to motivate people who have a natural gift for teaching to continue in that field. After all, even if you have a natural talent, if you have a bad first experience, you are not very likely to want to continue teaching.’
Annual calendar
On top of that, the university will start using a digital annual calendar. ‘We have received feedback saying that the course offering is unclear and that the courses fill up too quickly. Therefore, we will be working with an annual calendar, so that PhD candidates will know what is coming up and be able to sign up beforehand, and so that we will be able to add additional courses, if necessary.’
Van Dijk feels that this calendar is an important part of better organising the course offering. ‘The various parties that offer programmes are all part of the Centre for Training and Development: HR, the Language Centre, CELT, the library, and the Graduate School. This can currently be somewhat fragmented. We will now be streamlining the offering into several courses of learning, so that they supplement one another in a logical manner’, he says.
Development
Ever since the new PhD candidates’ charter was implemented in 2014, PhD candidates at the UT have been required to write an education programme and supervision plan. ‘This contains agreements that have been made regarding their supervision and the data management plan, but also indicates how they will be spending their required 30 ECTs on courses to deepen and broaden their personal development,’ says Van Dijk. ‘Then, they must sit a qualifier exam that involves a go/no-go moment. The rest of the PhD process contains annual meetings with the supervisor, during which the PhD candidate and supervisors consider the candidate’s personal development together.’
When they have completed their PhD degree, the candidates will receive a certificate listing the courses they have concluded to broaden and deepen their development. ‘This is in line with our view that completing a PhD degree is about more than just handing in a thick stack of paperwork. It is also about your personal development as a person. This certificate will allow candidates to show future employers that during their PhD degree, they invested in their personal development as well.’
