Online tool from NAT for PhD supervisors

As part of the Faculty's engagement with the EU's FESTA project (Female Empowerment in Science and Technology Academia), an online tool has been created, primarily for use by PhD supervisors. The tool has been developed through a collaboration between six European institutions for higher learning based on knowledge collection at the institutions. The overarching goal for the tool is to identify some of the challenges that can arise during a PhD, both for supervisors and students, and deliver practical knowledge, examples and recommendations.

The tool itself is constructed in a simple graphic with an overview of the different phases of a PhD and contains 21 different tools or subjects, such as the Relationship Between Supervisor and Student; Planning and Prioritization; and Rights and Routines.

At the Faculty of Science, Head of the PhD School Jacob Kongsted has not himself been part of the development of the tool, but he has been significantly involved with the content.

– Some of the material contained in the online tool comes from experiences we have had here at NAT - and that includes experiences by both PhD supervisors and students. We have had a number of study groups to do with the FESTA project, and this is part of the result, says Jacob Kongsted and goes on:

– I think the study groups were very productive. The supervisors who participated had the chance to speak completely freely about their experiences as PhD supervisors. It is a valuable approach, and I would like to see us continue with similar activities in the future. I am quite sure it will help to make us a better PhD school, says the head of the PhD school.

The tool, which is in English, is highly recommended by Jacob Kongsted.

– The PhD programme itself is complex and can be difficult to grasp. The tool gives a very good overview of it. You can work through the whole programme, or you can click on individual subjects and read about different experiences people have had and get very action-oriented and relevant directions. Particularly as a supervisor, I think the tool offers a good opportunity to keep ahead with the supervision. What the tool offers can be said very briefly - clarity, says Jacob Kongsted, who also thinks that the tool can be useful to PhD students.

– PhD students can certainly benefit from the tool. They can get an overview of the programme they are undertaking and all the phases and elements that lie ahead. They also get a very good picture of what the PhD supervisor's role is, he says.

Uppsala University in Sweden is part of the FESTA project, and the Swedish focus on gender issues has meant that at Uppsala they have already implemented the use of the tool as a set part of the university's PhD school. Jacob Kongsted says about this:

– You shouldn't overlook the gender aspect. It is our experience in the PhD School that there are more female students than males who experience difficulties and challenges during the study programme. So I think it is totally right that an effort is being made to address this. Having said that, it is also important for me to underline that this tool is equally useful for students of both genders, says Jacob Kongsted who, however, does not wish to be as heavy-handed as they are in Sweden:

– It would probably be difficult to implement the tool here in the same way as they have done in Sweden. We don't want to force anything down anybody's throat, because we have a system and a culture that works. But in the long term it of course makes sense to try and optimize and improve what we have - including by making use of offers such as the supervision tool, and I would encourage our supervisors to go to the site and look at the tool and see what they can use it for, he says.

Although there are no plans to make using the FESTA tool compulsory, it is a long way from saying that NAT's PhD school is not striving to improve.

– We have carried out research and analyses that show that we are generally good at educating our PhD students and that they are certainly very satisfied. But of course there are areas where we can improve. For example, the way we frame the programme and all the expectations to it - I think we can be better at that. And I actually think the online tool can help us with that, says Jacob Kongsted and adds:

– In the future, we at NAT aim to have an introduction meeting with all new PhD supervisors. In that context we will also encourage them to use the tool. The point is that it should be a natural part of supervision. The tool can offer both help and inspiration - to old as well as new supervisors, and everybody can benefit from that. Remember, it's not only difficult to be a PhD student. It can also be very difficult to be a PhD supervisor - and that is important to recognise, concludes Jacob Kongsted.

In he NAT faculty administration, FESTA Task Leader Liv Baisner is putting the finishing touches to a presentation of the web tool for a conference in Paris. But the whole FESTA project is about much more than a tool for PhD supervision.

– FESTA is an EU project that will help research organisations and universities attract and retain more women in research and management positions in science and technology, says Liv Baisner and explains:

– The project, which runs from 2012 until 2017, focuses very much on the structural and cultural elements in the academic world that result in an uneven gender balance, and the outcome of the project will contribute to eliminating that imbalance. So it's an extension and a very concrete contribution to the work on gender equality which is already underway, also here at SDU, she says.

The FESTA project includes seven subprojects, and as a partner, the Faculty of Science has been involved in five of these delivering the knowledge that, in addition to the current PhD supervision tool, has resulted in a number of handbooks, training programmes for young researchers, career tools and more.

– A major analysis of statistics has been carried out, and we have gathered both qualitative and quantitative data. This has revealed general trends - not just here at Science, but across all the partner institutions, says Liv Baisner and continues:

– Our results clearly show that changes have to be made. It isn't about something as banal as meeting gender quotas, but rather that the current practice means that we are losing talent and research potential in science and technology - and that is costing the whole of society dear.

The PhD supervision tool that has been available online since July, has already received attention from quite a few visitors to the site.

– It's very satisfying to see how many visits there have already been to the website, and that the visitors are from all over the world. We have also been asked by EIGE (European Institution for Gender Equality, ed.) for permission to include the site in their portfolio of monitoring tools – this is a recognition we are very happy about, concludes Liv Baisner.