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The Student’s Column

More teaching duties for PhD students at SUND: gift or burden?

Why did a proposal that could have made me feel like a valued and useful part of the University’s core service turn into a solid punch in the stomach and a slap in the face?

By Charlotte Brøgger Bond, 12/20/2023

On 5 October, all PhD students at the Faculty of Health Sciences received an email stating that as of 1 November, they must deliver a minimum of 300 hours of teaching during their time as students. The email also informed them that the School’s funds for covering travel expenses had been reduced and that students must now provide invoicing information when registering for courses in order to eliminate cases of non-attendance. 

An email like that could make anyone feel valued. 

A week passed, and then 300 hours were downgraded to 200 hours; I can only imagine that the meagrely staffed PhD School has been chasing its tail answering enquiries from frustrated PhD students. But isn’t it actually both a fair and economically sound idea to activate PhD students with an equal amount of teaching assignments? And isn’t it to be expected that the students are happy to deliver teaching when it is stated in both the executive order and their contracts? Aren’t we in fact a bit of a spoiled generation of PhD students? 

My own view is that yes, of course the PhD students should deliver teaching. It is part of the University’s DNA, and the dissemination of knowledge is, in my opinion, just as important as creating knowledge. So it is, rather, more about the way in which the requirement of 300 hours of teaching was implemented. It was inappropriate and inelegant.  

SDU has a strategy about involvement, but where were the PhD students’ voices in this? In the PhD School Committee at SUND, we discussed whether there is even enough teaching for around 600 PhD students. How are students to find relevant teaching? Will permanent staff be willing to relinquish their regular teaching to new students? What about the foundations that pay the salaries? And are the students well enough equipped to teach?  

If questions like these are not addressed before implementing a new initiative, it ends up being a requirement that is forced upon people, and then you might as well call it a burden. If, on the other hand, you take the time to listen and solve the problems associated with the new initiative, you will achieve much better results. Who knows, then some people might even see the measure as a gift rather than a burden. 

Charlotte Brøgger Bond

PhD student at the Research Unit for Physical Activity and Health in Working Life, Department of Sports Science and Biomechanics. Member of the PhD School Committee at SUND.

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Editing was completed: 20.12.2023