Working Group C

Doctoral Education & Skills Training

in Civil Engineering faculties

Marina Pantazidou

National Technical University of Athens

EUCEET III General Assembly

Paris, November 19, 2009

Group C report: title & contentsDoctoral Education & Skills Training

in Civil Engineering faculties• Introduction• Doctoral Education Trends

– In Europe, in the USA

• Skills training– Definitions, examples (Cardiff, KU Leuven, others)

• Attitudes towards skill training– Questionnaire & answers

• Seminar material– Seminar material adapted (Scientific integrity), Seminar material

developed (Terminology)

• Conclusions• References

Presentation outline

• Group goals and activities• Literature review

– Doctoral education trends (EU)

• Attitudes questionnaire• Adaptation and development of seminar

material• Wrapping up group work

– Final report, dissemination activities, the future

Doctoral Programs Theme: Goals of Group C work

1. Synthesize background information from Europe and the US

2. Compile data on types of seminars on transferable skills development offered to PhD candidates in Civil Engineering

3. Examine attitudes of Civil Engineering faculty and PhD candidates regarding seminars

4. Develop seminar material and adapt material from existing short-duration seminars, disseminate this material among EUCEET partners

5. Identify opportunities for future international collaborations for the development and dissemination of material for seminars developed specifically for Civil Engineering PhD candidates

Nov. ’09 Progress: Goals 1-4 achieved. Goal 5: Ongoing!

Group C activities

• Questionnaire on skills training circulated within the group

• Group meeting on March 27, 2009, hosted by KU Leuven

• Website– includes traces of group work (presentations, minutes,

questionnaire) and work products

• Literature review• Production, review & adaptation of seminar

material• Final report

Literature Review: Doctoral Education

Administration: trends• Europe

– Many universities have established graduate or doctoral schools with longer or shorter histories

• eg, Aalborg (1993), Lausanne EPFL (2003-2006), Chalmers (2005), KU Leuven (2007), …

– Graduate or doctoral schools involve one or more institutions

• eg Doctorate School of Geotechnical Engineering (all universities in the Campania region)

• Questions for the group– Have we missed a doctoral school with some

important innovation?– Have we missed a doctoral school with experience of

many years?

Coursework: trends

• Europe – Few countries still adhere uniformly to the

traditional apprenticeship model for PhD– Most universities have coursework

requirements

• Question– Can we say that all the institutions of Group

C members require coursework?

Skills training: trends

• Europe – Mostly offered through doctoral schools– Some universities provide opportunities for

off campus training (eg Imperial College)– Quite a few universities provide training on

transferable skills, but fewer require it

• Question for the group– Can we say that where skills training is

required, it is required by law (and not simply by university regulation)?

Skills training: exampleCardiff University• Research Students’ Skills Development Program

– joint effort of 4 research and graduate schools– http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/gradc/training/

skillsdevprogramme/• Over 200 courses in areas such as:• Research skills & techniques (eg statistics)• Research Ethics• Research Management (eg information resources for

research)• Communication (eg public engagement)

– all courses described in terms of objectives & contents

Group C looks attransferable skills

Transferable skills: definition

For the purposes of doctoral education, we give the following definition for transferable skills:

abilities enhanced or obtained during postgraduate research that are useful to many different kinds of professional roles

Note 1: Such skills are sometimes referred to as ‘horizontal’.Note 2: Professional roles refer to either academic or non-academic careers.Note 3: For examples of transferable skills see Table 1 (next slide).

Competence profile of PhD graduates I. Skills mostly useful for an engineering career II. Skills useful for any career

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)

Research-related skills

Academic & technical skills

Intellectual skills Leadership & change management

Relational skills Self management skills

PhD-topic specific Research setup Conceptual thinking Leadership & motivation skills

Interpersonal skills / communication

Autonomy

e.g., Constitutive modeling, Continuum mechanics

Methodological skills and statistical analysis

Analytical thinking Strategic thinking Teamwork / working together

Goal-directedness /Result-driven approach

Data interpretation skills

Synthetic skills Creativity and innovation

Diplomatic skills Perseverance

Reporting skills Critical thinking

Taking initiative & entrepreneurship

Networking Coping with stress

General engineering research tools

Project and budget management

Interdisciplinary thinking/broadminded- ness

Flexibility Presentations/speaking in public

Planning, organizing and prioritizing

e.g., Numerical analysis, Fundamental data structures in computer science

Fund raising Learning capability and interest

International focus Confidence and assertiveness

Acting and thinking pragmatically

Pedagogical skills

Problem-solving skills

Language skills

Knowledge of the research field

Table 1. Examples of transferable skills

adapted from KU Leuven

Questionnaire• From the categories of skills & related seminars below

1. Research-related skills (e.g., numerical modelling, computing)

2. Academic & technical skills (e.g., research setup, reporting skills, pedagogical skills)

3. Intellectual skills (e.g., interdisciplinary thinking)

4. Leadership& change management (e.g., entrepreneurship)

5. Relational skills (e.g., communication, team working)

6. Self management skills (e.g., time management)

• which categories of seminars

i) are required by your institution? ii) do you think PhD should take? iii) can Group C develop?

Some answers

University University course requirements

Personal opinion on course requirements

Group C

focus

Yes-No what kind? Yes-No what kind?

Piza Yes 1 Yes 1 1

Prague Yes 1,2,4,5 No,

except foreign

languages

Bratislava Yes 1 Yes 1 2,3

Helsinki Yes 1,2,4,5 Yes

1,2 (mainly)

3,4,5 (MSc as well)

1,2,4,5

Dublin Yes 1,2,3 Yes 1,2,3,6 2,5,6

Ostrava Yes 1,2,5,6 Yes 1,2,5,6 2,4,5,6

Thessaloniki 1 Yes 1,2 (3,4) Yes 1,2,3,4 2,3,4,5,6

2 Yes 1,2 (5,6) Yes 1,2 (5,6) 2,6

Athens Yes 1 Yes 1,2

(mainly)

5 2,5

Cardiff Yes 1,2,6 (mainly)

3,4,5 (some) Yes

1,2 (mainly)

3,6 (some)

Heriot-Watt Yes 1,2 Yes 1 (mainly) -

1. research-related2. academic & technical3. intellectual4. leadership5. relational6. self-management

Summary of answers

• Most useful categories: (1) Research-related skills

(2) Academic & technical skills (eg research setup, reporting skills, pedagogical skills)

• Most appropriate category for EUCEET collaboration: (2) Academic & technical skills

Group C adapts and develops seminar materials

Adaptation of seminar material• Seminar on Scientific Integrity

– developed by the Commission on Scientific Integrity (CSI) of KU Leuven

• Seminar scope– the research trainee should acquire knowledge of the ‘often

unconscious’ consensus among the scientists of a given discipline on scientific integrity

• Seminar goal– to raise awareness of the importance of integrity for a

professional attitude in research

• Seminar contents– Code of conduct , Ethical Justification, Legal Aspects,

Introduction on CSI

Please visit!

http://euceet.eu/

Workgroups

Group C

Development of seminar material

• Seminar on Terminology Resources and principles

• Collaboration with President of the Hellenic Society for Terminology

• Specifications: seminar material should – be designed for specific learning outcomes– be tailored to civil engineering PhD students– should make an engineering faculty member with

no formal background in Terminology feel comfortable delivering the seminar

Seminar objectives

• At the end of the seminar, participants– know of national standardization body &

source of standards– can locate terminology standards and

glossaries in their subject area– can use web-based multilingual term resources– are familiar with good practices in definition-

giving and term-rendering– are able to evaluate technical terms on the

basis of terminology principles

Seminar format & content• One 2-hour presentation (day 1)

– The three players of communication: concept, definition, term

– Terminology needs in research• an unknown term• how should we call it?• discovery of a new concept

– Concepts, concept relations, concept systems

– 4 rules for a good definition, 6 principles for a good term

– Evaluation of terms from technical texts

– Resources

– Assignment: evaluation of terms (due day 15)

• One 1-hour discussion (day 22)– Discussion of assignments

Terminology seminar material

• PowerPoint presentation in English and Greek– accompanied by a text with comments on

each slide

• Additional resources for the seminar instructor

• List of sources for suitable texts for term analysis (eg EU regulations, Eurocodes)

Please visit!

http://euceet.eu/

Workgroups

Group C

Wrapping up Group C work

Group C report: title & contentsDoctoral Education & Skills Training

in Civil Engineering faculties• Introduction• Doctoral Education Trends

– In Europe, in the USA

• Skills training– Definitions, examples (Cardiff, KU Leuven, others)

• Attitudes towards skill training– Questionnaire & answers

• Seminar material– Seminar material adapted (Scientific integrity), Seminar material

developed (Terminology)

• Conclusions• References

Dissemination

• Seminar presented in Conference on Terminology– will get reviewed by the President of the

European Association for Terminology

• Both seminars need to be taught in 1-2 EUCEET institutions and seminar material to be modified accordingly

A possible future• Pursue EU funding for the development of

transferable seminars tailored to civil engineering PhD candidates

• Collaborative effort between civil engineering faculty and domain experts

• Material developed for seminar on terminology can be used as pilot

• Suggested topics: research ethics, communication to the public, …(combination of interests and available expertise)

Questions & Answers (1)• Administration

– have we missed a doctoral school with some important innovation?

– have we missed a doctoral school with experience of many years?

– how is the collaboration between doctoral schools and departments?

• Coursework– can we say that all the institutions of Group

C members require coursework?

Questions & Answers (2)• Skills training

– have we missed any impressive skills training program like Cardiff’s?

– in the UK, is skills training required by law?– can we say that where skills training is

required, it is required by law (and not simply by university regulation)?

• Skills naming– would you prefer it if PhD students got

training in “research skills” instead of “transferable skills”?

Questions & Answers (3)• Seminar materials (at Group C site:

Scientific Integrity, Terminology)– could you offer comments?– could you offer a review?– could you adopt them in your university?

• Seminar materials (others)– do you have one seminar to recommend as

“model”?– could you identify opportunities for sharing

seminar material?