FACULTY OF SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN
The PhD committee
MINUTES
5 JANUARY 2015
Forum
The PhD committee
Meeting held:
8 December 2014 from 10.00 – 13.00
PHD SECTION
Place:
Meeting room A131, Bülowsvej 17, Frederiksberg
BÜLOWSVEJ 17
SCIENCE RESEARCH AND
INNOVATION
DK - 1870 FREDERIKSBERG
Minutes-taker: Michael Cleve Hansen
Present:
David B. Collinge, Erik Dahl Kjær, Jens Friis Lund, Kell Mortensen,
Mikkel Schou Nielsen, Michael Cleve Hansen, Miku Yoshida, Morten
Pejrup, Søren Larsen
Apologies:
Frederik Clauson-Kaas, Klavs Martin Sørensen Niek de Kleijn, Ryszard
Nest
Agenda:
1)
2)
3)
4)
Agenda
Approval of minutes from the meeting 3 September 2014
Announcements
Approval of PhD courses in the student’s course portfolio – who
makes the decision?
5) The annual residential workshop of the PhD school – planning and
topics
6) Meetings in 2015 – numbers and dates
7) Any other business
1) Agenda
DIR
+45 35332056
MOB
+45 21161366
mclh@science.ku.dk
REF: MCLH
The agenda was approved and was added an extra point 6a) Ownership of
data.
2) Approval of minutes from the meeting 3 September 2014
The minutes were approved.
3) Announcements
 The annual PhD graduation ceremony at SCIENCE 12 September
2014: SCIENCE invited all PhD graduates who graduated in the period from 1 January 2013 to 31 May 2014 to the first annual PhD
graduation ceremony. 75 PhD graduates have accepted the invitation
and were accompanied by their family, supervisors and members
from the PhD study board. In total approx. 150 guests joined the party. The graduation party was a great success although the area for the
reception were too small and the supply of wine too little.
 General rules and guidelines for the PhD programme: In January
2015 the updated rules and guidelines will be implemented. A set of
revised PhD forms will accompany the new regulations and they are
uploaded together with the regulations.
 The election for the PhD study board: Unfortunately no PhD students were elected; probably due to poor administration and an inadequate election system. Five PhD students must join the PhD study
board for the board to be constituted and the PhD section will contact the heads of department, the PhD coordinators and PhD secretaries to ask for assistance.
 Target measures for enrolment: In 2015 SCIENCE is expected to
enroll 314 PhD students. In 2014 the target number was 332.
 PhD KUFIR: Søren Larsen announced that UCPH have accepted an
action plan for the PhD programme to be implemented in 2015-17.
The plan consists of three elements: Career opportunities, statistics
on employment and funding schemes. The career elements will include “PhD MUS”, mentor arrangements, micro visits to companies,
transferrable skills, constitution of an alumni association etc. Soon
the action plan will be available on the PhD website of UCPH.
 The 3+5 scheme: The central office for Research and Innovation
(R&I, UCPH) and Thomas Bjørnholm are still working on a description that clarifies how the MSc thesis can be integrated in the PhD
thesis. For now SCIENCE allows the MSc thesis to be included as
an appendix to the PhD thesis. R&I, UCPH are also investigating
how to make use of state grants in the context of the 3+5 scheme.
Still it remains to be solved whether it is legal or not to use the
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means to cover part of the salary. As soon as the answer in known
the PhD school of SCIENCE will ask the management of SCIENCE
to implement the new 3+5 scheme that was discussed by the committee in September 2014.
 Grand meeting for all stakeholders within the PhD area: Morten
Pejrup suggested inviting all major stakeholders from the PhD area
to a meeting where the new regulations and forms will be presented.
4) Approval of PhD courses in the student’s course portfolio – who
makes the decision?
In order to make it easier for PhD students and their supervisors to get
courses approved; the PHD section has written a guide to the PhD school
course system. The PhD committee commented on the guide and accepted
the content. The guide will be implemented in January 2015 along with the
general rules and forms.
The committee decided that PhD courses supplied by Danish universities
and presented in the National PhD Course Database and Master courses
from Danish universities only have to be approved by the principal supervisor before the application is sent to the PhD school. All other courses also
have to be approved by the PhD coordinator at the department.
5) The annual residential workshop of the PhD school – planning and
topics
The annual workshop of the PhD school will take place late April 2015 and
the PhD committee suggests that the arrangement is planned for two days from lunch the first day to lunch the second day. The workshop is hosted by
the head of the PhD school and the PhD committee and the following guests
were suggested to be invited:
 3 PhD students per department
 PhD coordinators
 Deputy heads of departments for research (VILF)
 PhD secretaries
 PhD section
The following topics were suggested to / will be included in the agenda:
 PhD supervision – quality and quantity
 The future career of PhD students – possibilities and expectations of
the candidates and how to secure a right choice
 Strategic recruitment of PhD students
 How to administer the PhD school, e.g. the 3+5 scheme, the double
degree scheme, consolidating the time-line for a PhD study pro-
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gramme and the collaboration between the PhD school and departments
 Rules and regulations, co-authorship and collaboration
6) Meetings in 2015 – numbers and dates
The PhD committee decided to have four meetings in 2015 (March, June,
October and December). If necessary; additional meetings will be scheduled. Meeting dates will be forwarded to the members in January 2015.
7) Any other business
The PhD board decided to write a small summery of the minutes to highlight decisions and information of interest for the PhD students. The summaries will be forwarded directly to the PhD students.
It is possible for a PhD student to say no to an offer of “duty work” (280
hours per year). But as a consequence the salary will be reduced proportionately.
Most PHD students who carry out “duty work” is asked to teach on courses
for undergraduate students. But the norm for preparation varies a lot between the subject areas (departments). The PhD committee will discuss possible recommendations next year.
In the future newsletters from the PhD school will present the context in the
header.
It is suggested that contact person information on the website of the PhD
school includes their picture. The PhD section will see to that when the
website is updated. And in the contact person section that presents the
members of the PhD committee it will also be included which area the individual member represents.
Kell Mortensen thanked the PhD committee for a fruitful collaboration in
2014 and looks forward to continue the work in the 2015.
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