In 2016, Aarhus University conducted a survey about work place satisfaction among all staff, including PhD students. In general, PhD students scored lower than academic staff. PhD students are generally satisfied with their influence on their daily work and their competences to perform the required tasks. PhD students do however feel more stressed and lonely than academic staff.
Because of the survey, AUPA collected some ‘best practices’ among departments who scored high in satisfaction within their faculties.
These best practices are listed below.
Usually I send out invitation by a mailing list that the graduate school provides. Here is an example of what I sent out last time for a breakfast we actually had today. 12 people showed up, which is more than regularly, perhaps because a new bunch of PhDs started 1 Feb and they are curious and not yet accustomed to the “I do just sit for myself culture”.
“We will have this year’s first PhD breakfast meeting on February 1 at 9-10. Jacob Williams Ørberg, who recently defended his dissertation, will join us and share some experiences from his own stay abroad. We will discuss the practical issues that we have or might have encountered such as funding, length, place etc. Hope to see as many of you as possible.”
What the regulations say:
Plan for participation in active environments (change of research environment)
In order to ensure that the PhD programme is on an international level, it must include a lengthy research stay in an active environment overseas for an all period of at least two months. Reflection concerning change of research environment and international research stays must appear in the PhD plan. The head of the graduate school may give exemptions from this requirement in connection with approvals of the PhD plan, if there are academic or other important reasons for doing so.
Total stay overseas may not normally exceed one year. Because of the need to ensure that, the PhD dissertation is handed in before the end of the enrolment period, lengthy stays abroad may not be placed in the last semester of the programme.
It is expected that PhD students will participate actively in international academic conferences and workshops.
We have an informal Katrinebjerg network for junior researchers (below associate professorship) usually referred to as Vrede Unge Forskere (or VrUF)(=Angry Young Researchers).
It started out as a Facebook-group where a few PhD-students were coordinating lunchtimes, asking practical questions and ranting about the PhD planner. From there it has developed organically into a rich stream where we crowdsource anything from teaching experiences/advice, recommendations for ‘great music for writing’, good transcription software, and organising tools, pictures/updates from our research travels, social event notifications/invitations, etc. We share our insecurities, ask for help, and help each other out. In addition, we add our new young (in terms of academic youth) colleagues in order to integrate them in our social environment.
Now and then, we arrange shut up n write sessions, which basically means that one of us books a room on a certain date where those in need of a structured social setting for dedicated writing show to up to shut up and write, typically in sprints of 30 minutes at a time. In between these sprints we make a round where people do shortly (30 sec or so) state what they have been working on in the last 30 minutes, and what they will do in the next 30 minutes. This is a great way to make transparent what other PhD’s are working on and how, and usually it inspires to further talking.
Based on the themes commonly discussed in the Facebook-group, at shut up and write, and in the lunchroom, we sometimes arrange themed lunch-meetings (about monthly). The concept here is that we bring our lunch, we make a round where we do shortly introduce ourselves and what we are currently working on, and one of us presents something that might interest others, such as “How I did my literature review”, “How I use Scrivener as a writing software”, “How do I organise/structure my PhD process”, “How to deal with AURUS" etc.
It is pretty central to the meaningfulness of our network that it is not institutionally imposed but has sprouted from our needs to connect with each other. To a great extent the network is based the local environment that we do already share; thus the network supports, enhances and extends a sociality that is already there (and experienced as meaningful), instead of “artificially” creating a new one.
