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Vikings get ahead in science

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 22:00:00 GMT

Be brave and aggressive, be prepared and be a good merchant. These so called “Viking Laws” are, in a nutshell, the advice of Zsolt Kajocsos, Deputy Director of KFKI, for young researchers who want to be successful in science. In the ESOF session on “Structured doctoral training and postdoctoral mobility” different approaches to university management of high quality academic education, research and innovation in Europe were discussed. Young researchers were encouraged to be strong and learn how to sell themselves and their research despite how their university manages doctoral training.

“There are universities who contract their PhD candidates and there are universities who not even register candidates who want to start a research career“, said Mary Ritter, Pro-Rector for Postgraduate and International Affairs in Imperial College London, UK. After assessing five years of reforms of European Doctoral Education she concluded that benchmarking progress of graduate school programs are essential and that there are fast and slow adopters of change in academia. The different levels of adaption to change are connected with the “different funding and degrees of autonomy of universities,” said Ritter.

Marja Makarow, Chief Executive of the European Science Foundation thinks that “research training is a must in a knowledge based society” and that some top down pressure helps universities manage their doctoral training more effectively.

Since no system is perfect and the road to a PhD is long and the pathways to the European Research Area are even longer, researchers are advised to stay strong and take on Viking principles in the face of rough waters.

by Dino Trescher

This article was submitted to the Euroscientist journalism competition 2010 and came in 3rd place

Eurodoc survey on the situation of doctoral candidates in Europe 2008/2009

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 23:00:00 GMT

Eurodoc survey on the situation of doctoral candidates in Europe 2008/2009

9000 young European researchers give insight into their situation

These are the first findings from the survey discussed at an expert workshop in Bonn, Germany, in late 2009. Between 08/12/2008 and 31/05/2008 Eurodoc, together with INCHER Kassel, conducted the first survey on the situation of doctoral candidates on the European level. The first findings from the analysis of the poll were presented on 27th and -28th November 2009 in Bonn’s Wissenschaftszentrum (research centre). Over 1.5 days, researchers, stakeholders from higher education policy-making and social scientists from all over Europe discussed the survey’s first findings.

Sponsored by the Stifterverband, Körber Stiftung, APEC and the Bologna Centre of the German Rectors Conference, around 40 participants reflected upon the data on topics which have been frequently discussed in higher education policy-making circles, focussing on doctoral training over the last decade. “Eurodoc wants to give a basis for political decision making processes for improving the situation of young researchers especially for the next Bologna meeting in Vienna and Budapest”, says current Eurodoc president, Nikola Macharová.

Some of the most discussed issues on the nearly two days fall under a number of headings.

Perceived obstacles to mobility: The main hindrances to mobility are family and partnership reasons, low funding, partners’ job opportunities and reduced career opportunities back home.

The doctoral qualification is predetermining the career path: The main proportion of doctoral candidates want to stay in research (three quarters) and feel better qualified for a career in academia than outside the alma mater and research institutes.

Perceived status of employability outside academia based on doctoral training: Although around 70% of the doctoral candidates receive additional training while doing the doctorate, only a smaller proportion feel qualified for a job outside academia.

Stability and availability of funding for and throughout the doctorate: Although around 80% of the respondents receive funding for the doctorate, either as salary or as scholarship or work in the academic sector, there is still a large proportion doing the doctorate with private funds (e.g. family, self-employment, unemployment funding). Gender differences are not as strong as expected (e.g. mobility is equally high). However a closer look reveals that there seem to be some differences in the funding between those having no children and those having one or several children. Findings from the survey point out that doctoral candidates with children have a harder time obtaining stable funding for their doctorate. Besides this, findings reveal that almost 20% felt pressured to postpone having children.

Eurodoc’s survey team will do some further analysis of the data in the next couple of months, before a first public policy paper is presented at the Eurodoc conference 2010 (www.eurodoc.net/2010) in Vienna. “We will be happy to support the young researchers in their further work” the experts – Pavel Zgaga, Paule Biaudet, Iain Cameron, Beate Scholz and Harald Schomburg – confirmed at the workshop.

European Union Contest for Young Scientists

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:00:00 GMT

EUCYS (the European Union Contest for Young Scientists) started in 1989, while Jacques Delors was the Commision President. It replaced the Philips contest, which had been sponsored by the Philips corporation since 1968. The Contest was set up to promote cooperation and interchange between young scientists...

Towards ESOF 2010 in Torino

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:00:00 GMT

After a rough start, things are now progressing rather smoothly and the team is now operating quite efficiently.

The Call for Proposals for the Scientific Programme has been so far successful. In addition, almost all plenary and keynote speakers have been selected and invited by the Programme Committee. It’s a formidable and diverse list of prominent scholars (including three Nobel laureates), more than one third of which are women.

Eurodoc speech

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 22:00:00 GMT

Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure for me as the new President of Eurodoc – The European Council of Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers [and me as outgoing President] – to speak here at this conference.

We would like to address our special thanks to the organisers – especially the representatives of the European University Association and the University of Lausanne as host of the convention – for giving us the opportunity to speak on behalf of the European federation of national organisations of young researchers.

Documenting diversity in European doctoral education

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 22:00:00 GMT

“There is a lack of comparable data on doctoral programmes and on how the doctorate within Europe is perceived. Some outcomes from national surveys, or surveys only on some topics can be found. However, these only focus on single areas of the doctorate and do not give information which provides a "general overview" on the situation of doctoral programmes and doctoral candidates in Europe. Making decisions and recommendations without having data showing the whole picture complicates the situation. This is made even worse by the diversity and the direction of structural and organisational reforms in Europe, which have taken place during the last decade. A need for more systematic information has been acknowledged for some time. Currently some institutions are doing surveys on the European level to improve the situation. Some institutions are collecting information on the level of the doctoral programme to be able to improve the quality of their programmes. The questions is, is the right approach? What does the time taken to get a degree tell us about the quality of the research work done?”