Your life as a PhD student at University of Tromsø€¦ · Your life as a PhD student at University of Tromsø 4 not satisfied at all partly satisfied satisfied very satisfied >

Your life as a PhD student at University of Tromsø

- survey results -

Tromsø Doctoral Students (TODOS)(http://todosuit.webs.com/)

June 2011

26.05.2011 19:00 www.questback.com


2

General issues

Health Sciences

LawFine Arts

BFE HSL NT

other

• Open: 26.04 – 22.05

• 249 unique answers

• 40% of the 2009 registered PhD students

• this presentation is available online

• more detailed results will be communicated to the faculties/other interested bodies

SUPERVISION AND RESEARCH



4

not satisfied at all

partly satisfied

satisfied

very satisfied

> 42% not or partly satisfied with their academic life at UiT

Q 9. How satisfied are you, in general, with your academic life (own research, supervision, PhD courses etc.) as a PhD student at UiT?

Some of the comments:

• I work in a very productive and hard-working research group, CLEAR, and I am very happy that I am in a such academic environment!

• Faglig veiledning er dårlig, forskningsgruppe fungerer ikke.

• Jeg er på mitt andre semester uten veiledning.

• Doing it all in complete solitude.

• My advisors stole my data, and I had to switchadvisors and work extra to make up for the lost time and data.



6


partly satisfied

satisfied

very satisfied

~ 40% not or partly satisfied with received supervision

Q 26. How satisfied are you, in general, with the supervision you receive in relation to the research activities you are carrying out at UiT?


• I have a regular meeting with my supervisor every week and every forth week with the other supervisor. It is very intensive and productive.

• The support from my supervisor has been a key element in the development of the PhD, from writing the proposal, to the field, to the preparation of articles.

• I think that most of the supervisors have no formal education in supervision. This should have been a demand for all supervisors at PhD-level. When looking around me, I do think that supervision or lack of it is a core-reason for a lot of frustration and procrastination.

• He never has any time, he's always stressed, and he doesn't have the necessary qualifications (he's nice, though).



8

yes

no

Q 29. Did you know you have the right to have more than one supervisor?


• When I first was employed at the university, I lobbied for an additional supervisor, since what my PhD project partly examines is unfamiliar to my supervisor as well as the rest of the academic staff at my department, but was told that it was not a right to have more than one supervisor, and that it would probably prove too costly and difficult.

• I think the University makes it too difficult to change supervisors = the process takes too long.

• Some supervisors are on the paper, just for administrative / political reasons... Rather common, I think.



10

less than sufficient minimum

satisfactory goodexcellent

Q 32. To what extent do you think your supervisor(s) has/have the knowledge to properly advise you? (>= 2 years in their PhD

program, n=158)

~ 20% minimum or less knowledgeable supervisors



11

never

from time to time, but not on a regular

basis on a regular basis, but not once a week

once a week

whenever I need it

Q 34. How often do you receive supervisory input?

> 40% un-regular supervisory input



12

he/she never takes action

rarely

sometimes

oftenhe/she always takes action

Q 37. To what extent do you feel your main supervisor takes action to follow up on your discussions?

> 45% low response rate from main supervisor



13

yes

noI don't know

Q 71. Are you a member of a research group?



14

not active at all

less than I would like it to be

as active as I would like it to be

more than I would like it to be

Q 72. How active is this group compared with your needs?

> 34% PhD students are under stimulated

PhD COURSES OFFERED AT UiT



16

there are NOT enough relevant courses available

there are enough relevant courses available

Q 40. How do you find the number of PhD courses offered at UiT?


• I am struggling to find relevant courses to complete the course requirements for my PhD.

• I think the best option for a PhD student is to travel to other institutions when taking courses.



18


partly satisfied satisfied

very satisfied

> 50% not or partly satisfied with the academic content of PhD courses at UiT

Q 42. How satisfied are you with the academic content of the PhD courses you took at UiT?



19


partly satisfied

satisfied

very satisfied

> 40% not or partly satisfied with the teaching skills of teachers involved in PhD courses

Q 44. How satisfied are you with the teaching skills of the teachers who have taught your PhD courses at UiT (on average)?


• The quality of the courses differs significantly - some are very good, some are not so good.

• Lack of capability to use free speech (one lecturer was reading everything from a manus). Complete misunderstanding of the use/misuse of power-point.

• The field specific course was given by a first year teaching professor, and it was very disorganized.

• The BFE ethics course was really bad, both content-wise and teaching-wise.

• So far, I have taken just the course MNF-8000, and I think it was a waste of time.

• Excellent teacher = excellent course.

TEACHING DUTIES

Among those who teach or have to teach (n=165; 57,6% of N)

yes, from UiT

yes, from somewhere

elseyes, both from

somewhere else and UiT

no

Among those who teach or have to teach (n=165; 57,6% of N)

yes

no

Among those that teach/have to teach and didn’t receive training (n=129)

yes

no



25

less than I should

as much as I should

more than I should way more

than I should

I didn't know that the time used for these duties is regulated

Q 59. How much time do you think you spend on your teaching duties (pliktarbeid), compared with the time

regulated for this kind of duties by your department/faculty?

> 60% discrepancies between the rules and the actually used time


• I takes several days, sometimes weeks, to prepare a lecture you have not given before and you are rewarded with 5-6 hours. For comparison, you are given 10 or 14 days to prepare the trial lecture for your public defense and that one lasts 45 minutes.

• The regulated time to spend preparing lectures/other duties (4:1) is not realistic as these duties include preparing, supervising students and grading exams. I believe the system of regulating pliktarbeid needs to be revised, since it is in the interest of the University to see phd students complete their thesis.

• Bruker mye mer tid på å forberede forelesninger fordi jeg må lære meg hvordan dette skal gjøres selv. Å ha fått opplæring i åundervise og samtidig fått godkjent som det pliktarbeid ville vært hensiktsmessig: Forberedelsene ville blitt mer tidseffektiv og kvaliteten bedre.

ADMINISTRATIVE ISSUES



28


partly satisfied

satisfied

very satisfied

I have not had reason to be in contact with them

Q 68. To what degree are you satisfied with the information you have received about your rights and duties as a PhD student at UiT?

> 65% not or partly satisfied with received information about rights and duties at UiT


• There is not much information about rights, but a bit about duties.

• The start information was very thin. There should be a unit (en mappe) that each new PhD-student should be given, where duties and rights and guidance are included. Now, we are searching and struggling for information, using too much time to get the picture of how it all works.

• I personally received no information until I found some documents on-line myself. And now is the 5th month of my PhD program.

• Bad Internet pages...

• Would be good if more systematic information were given to phd students. Seems a bit random now.



30

N

Current 247

yes, I have these meetings on a regular basis

yes, I have these meetings, but not on a regular basis

I have never had this kind of meeting

Q 70. Do you have yearly meetings with your institute leader related to your working conditions (medarbeidersamtale)?

(>=2 year in the PhD program, n=156)



31

yes

no

Q 97. Do you think that gender is an issue that comes up while performing your academic duties at UiT?


• Not really, but it seems to be an indirect issue to some people (such as supervisors joking about the suitability of PhD students going on maternity leave).

• It seems that having children during your PhD time is not appreciated by supervisors/administration.

• Do not know if this is right, but feel women are asked to do more than male temporary employees. Also have the impression that women more often are asked to do 'unofficial duties', like organizing parties, buying supplies, preparing rooms for lectures etc.

• We are all male and that makes us depressed, slow, and in the long run, fat.

From among general comments about the life as a PhD at UiT

• Stor frihet innen min forskning er en stor grunn til at jeg trivesmed mitt forskningsprosjekt.

• I am really happy with my position as a PhD-student. What increasingly worries me, though, are the bleak perspectives for a life in Academia in Tromsø AFTER the PhD-period is over.

• Interesting years primarily due to the given opportunity of mainly self-education. More is needed to built an effective scientific environment, an individual approach is needed.

• Give us more education in research communication.

• One final thing is that UiT (from central administration to research groups) should learn how to use their human resources better. PhD students are NOT just temporary labor force. Find out what these employees (the PhD students) know, use their skills and appreciate them!

Discussion

• Supervision:

• Pliktarbeid rules:

• Teaching skills courses:

• PhD courses offer:

Documents

Your life as a PhD student at University of Tromsø€¦ · Your life as a PhD student at University of Tromsø 4 not satisfied at all partly satisfied satisfied very satisfied >