1st Prof. van Ingen Workshop - Outcomes
Written by: Erine de Leeuw, Bart Jacobson, Jacqueline Chindea, Vincent Brügemann
Introduction
In recent years, the influx of master students has increased from about 200 to about 400
each year. In recent months we have come to the conclusion that some new ways will need
to be found to supervise the thesis of all of these student without losing its quality. During
the 1st van Ingen Educational workshop, we have talked about how to manage this increased
influx.
The aim of this document is to share the outcome of the 1st van Ingen workshop with
everybody who is supervising MSc students within the faculty. It summarizes some ideas
that have already been implemented in part of the faculty, but are interesting enough to be
shared by all of you.
During
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the workshop we have brainstormed about 3 main topics:
How to optimize the use of existing staff
How to optimize the use of PhD students
How to eliminate hurdles throughout the graduation process
These topics will be discussed in more detail below.
How to optimise: the use of existing staff
Winning idea: combined meetings with students and staff
 Overlapping thesis topics: This means that it is easier for staff members to handle
several students because the subjects don't differ that much. This saves time in
preparing the subjects.
 Scrum meeting for students: If there are overlapping topics, students can work
together similar to a project group and help each other. This means the staff does not
need to be present as much.
 Use fixed moments to invite fellow thesis profile students: Hold informal staff
student meetings or discussions in little groups so that other students can learn from
each other which saves questions later on. This can be done by letting the students hold
small presentations. Having these meetings at fixed moments saves a lot of effort in
setting several individual meetings.
 Kick-off, midterm, green light review: By setting these deadlines at an early stage,
expectations are clear and a student can work towards these milestones.
 Specific starting moments with procedural information: This means that the
teaching staff will only have to worry about the academic content. The students will get
all their procedural information about e.g. the literature study at once at the start.
 Specific starting moments with procedural information (e.g. literature study):
by creating starting moments for thesis and/or literature study, the information about
them can be relayed tyo multiple students at once releasing workload for the staff.
How to optimize the use of PhD students:
Let the PhD students propose and guide their own MSc topics. This idea is already
implemented in the faculty, however some improvements can still be made:
 Topics should be connected but not on the “critical path”: the topics chosen by
the PhD students should not be on the “critical path” (the main topic of the PHD,
essential to the work of the PHD), because the conclusion of this MSc topic should not be
essential for the research. In that way the quality of the thesis student does work against
the deadlines of the PHD student.
 The side ideas of theses should be defined at Go/No go of MSc
 The number of MSc students PhD students take on should be limited (to one
or two at the same time): this is because the workload of PhD students is already
quite large, the contribution of being a MSc supervisor should not be too great.
 Not in the first or last year of PhD: taking on MSc students should neither be done in
the first year (when they are busy with getting up to speed with their PHD thesis), nor in
the last year (when they should focus on writing their thesis).
 In the long term, criteria for taking on PhD students needs to be altered. As the
PDH student should not only be good at doing research, but should now also supervise
MSc student, another skill set will become more important:
o they should have some experience on teaching or supervising.
o they need to be good at teaching to be able to supervise MSc students.
o they all should be good at communicating (e.g. so have good English skills).
 Training of PhD on supervising MSc students: a training on supervising MSc
students should be an obligatory part of their graduate school.
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More awareness of this option should be created: To improve the visibility of the
PhD students to the MSc students, awareness can be created in the form of:
o PhD fairs: here PhD students can propose their topics to MSc students in general
o “Speed dating”: one-on-one in-depth conversation between PhD students and
interested MSc students about the MSc thesis topic
Controlled process: this whole process should be controlled by staff members that are
more familiar with supervising students. This should be done during the progress
meetings with the PHD students by the daily supervisors.
How to eliminate hurdles throughout the graduation process
Hurdles in the process can be eliminated by a clear communication on what is expected from
the student throughout the graduation process.
 Create a module course “Graduation" combining Literature Study and Thesis.
As most students combine literature study and thesis, a module course would better link
these two entities which converge into a single, major project work.
 Increase awareness to the students about the content of the graduation
project & prospective topics. This would increase the ownership of the process by the
students and could also increase their motivation. By taking ownership of the graduation
process, this also helps in reducing the workload of the staff members.
 Fix mismatch of planning expectations and planning requirements: As each
project has its own particularities and required availability in terms of timeline, an early
stage discussion with the aim of settling the project planning and availability
requirements will offer a clear overview for the student. This will be also contribute in
helping him/her in the decision of boarding a certain project.
 Fixed deadlines: Fixing deadlines from the start of the Literature Study and the Thesis
(Kick-Off, Midterm, Green Light) would increase student motivation and avoid
unnecessary prolongation of the process.
 Look back at the experience of students that finished their MSC graduation: In
learning from their experiences, and being aware of their greatest hurdles were, the
same problems can be avoided for current and future students.
Prof van Ingen Workshop
Prof. van Ingen, among others, was the founder of project education at the faculty, the most
prominent being the often praised DSE. As this was just one of his many improvements to
our faculty, his legacy should inspire us during our meetings. Together we will be able to
build further upon his progressive and innovative view on education.
In this series of workshops the aim is to create awareness of important topics concerning
education, and the exchange of possible solutions and ideas for these topics. This discussion
will be organised as the Board of Studies is set up: with both staff and students.
The Prof van Ingen workshop is organised by the board of studies multiple times each year.
For 2015-2016 the upcoming workshop dates are:
 Thursday 29 October 2015, 12:45 – 14:00, Lecture room J
 Thursday 11 February 2016, , 12:45 – 14:00, Lecture room J

Thursday 16 June 2016, 12:45 – 14:00, Lecture room J
Remarks or questions for the board of studies:
Boardofstudies-ae@tudelft.nl