DOCTORAL EDUCATION. The Doctoral Student Council meets a few times a month to discuss relevant questions for doctoral education. The meetings also serve as an open forum for PhD students who would like contact with others. All PhD students at Sahlgrenska Academy are welcome to attend.
The Doctoral Student Council (DoR) is an educational council within Sahlgrenska Academy’s student union that works to maintain the quality of doctoral education and to improve the work situation for PhD students.
“There are about 15 doctoral students that are active on the council and that take on different assignments, but there’s a high turnover and more people are needed,” says Naimi Johansson, who is currently the chair of the Doctoral Student Council.
Increased compensation
An important task for the council is representing the perspective of doctoral students in different councils and committees at different levels within Sahlgrenska Academy. Doctoral students appointed to be representatives to these groupings are compensated by the faculty paying for an extension of the doctoral education period for a specific number of days, depending on how extensive the assignment is. There is a discussion about whether this compensation can be increased, according to Naimi Johansson.
“The number of compensation days should be increased from what is currently given. The faculty is open to the idea, and we are now discussing what levels are reasonable. If the number of days actually cover the time required for the different assignments, it would make it easier to recruit PhD students to take on the work that needs doing.”
A community for doctoral student
Naimi Johansson is has a degree in economics from Örebro University and came to Gothenburg to do her doctoral work. As a PhD student, she is active within health economics, where she studies patient co-pays and regional differences in care consumption. When she began her doctoral studies, she was the only doctoral student at her workplace. The Doctoral Student Council provided her with a larger context and contact with other doctoral students.
“Now I have several doctoral student colleagues in close proximity, but I still have a need to meet other doctoral students outside my own research field. We can share experiences and discuss issues that we may be uncertain about how to handle.”
Increasing collaboration and involvement among PhD students is an important question for the Doctoral Student Council. The council is actively working to improve its own communication channels and to reach every PhD student, such as through being active on Facebook. The council is currently planning this year’s faculty-wide PhD Day, which will take place in November.
“We also want to put some pressure on the faculty and institutes to consider what they are doing for their PhD students. What meeting places are there for stimulating PhD students’ networking and collaboration at your institute or your department? During doctoral education, it is important to take advantage of a complete academic environment with everything that entails: to get out of the lab or clinic sometimes and to have the opportunity to discuss research with other people than your supervisor.”
Many externally funded doctoral students
Two years ago, the Doctoral Student Council initiated and conducted a work environment survey where doctoral students responded to questions about different aspects of the psychosocial work environment.
“We hope to conduct a new, similar survey with the support of the Council for Postgraduate Studies. The majority of all PhD students at Sahlgrenska Academy are externally funded, and since they formally are not employed by the university, they are not covered by the large work environment survey that the university conducted recently (ARK). It is important to cover this gap and to chart the study and work environment for these PhD students.”
The Doctoral Student Council meetings are open to all PhD students at the faculty and are used to discuss relevant questions for PhD education. DoR usually provides snacks and drinks but the last two meetings for this semester (May 5 and June 2) will be over Zoom. Contact dor@saks.gu.se for more information.
Read more about the Doctoral Student Council on the student union’s website: www.saks.se/dor (in English www.saks.se/dor/?lang=en)
TEXT: ELIN LINDSTRÖM
