38% van de promovendi aan Universiteit Leiden riskeren depressie. Dat concluderen Inge van der Weijden en Ingeborg Meijer na een survey onder 250 promovendi en twaalf interviews. Jonge- en internationale promovendi lopen extra risico. Of promovendi een vast contract hebben heeft geen invloed op hun mentale gezondheid, dat geldt evenmin voor autonomie of werkdruk. Hoe zij omgaan met werkdruk beïnvloedt wel hun mentale welzijn. Dit onderzoek gebruikt dezelfde methode als eerder onderzoek op Vlaamse universiteiten en vond vergelijkbare resultaten. Het volledige beleidsrapport is beschikbaar in het Engels en het Nederlands.

Hans Sonneveld (2015), Verslag project Langpromoveerders, Tilburg Law School.
Vragen die centraal staan in dit rapport: Wat zijn de werkomstandigheden van de promovendi die meer dan vijf à zes jaar doen over het promotietraject? Wanneer werd duidelijk dat de dissertatie niet op tijd klaar zou zijn? Wat zijn de belangrijkste oorzaken van het lange promoveren? Bedreigt de lange duur op zich een succesvolle afronding van de dissertatie?
Aan wat voor soort steun heeft de langpromoveerder behoefte? Op wat voor manier kan voorkomen worden dat dit probleem van het lange promoveren zich blijft herhalen? Text.

Zinner e.a. (2016) Professionals in Doctoral Education. University of Vienna.
There is no doubt, that the last decade has been marked by changes in Higher Education. These changes have in some areas been accompanied by an ascent of Higher Education Professionals. But although the area of doctoral education has especially been affected by structural changes the roles of the strongly developing supporting staff in this area so far has been neglected. We believe it is time to put Professionals in Doctoral Education under the spotlight. Who are they, what do they do, why are they so important? This handbook intends to provide hands-on and practical information on the roles and activities of doctoral education professionals. The proposed target audience are administrators in doctoral education, HR managers and academic leaders in higher education institutions. Modern doctoral education needs professional staff and this handbook aims at helping to reach this goal.  Text

Hans Sonneveld (2016), Dissertaties in zwaar weer. Afgewezen dissertaties van de Tilburg Law School.
Een analyse van de dossiers van elf dissertaties die door de promotiecommissies bij de eindbeoordeling in eerste instantie zijn afgewezen.Vragen: wie zijn deze promovendi? Komen we alle typen promovendi tegen (full time promovendi in een werknemerspositie, beurspromovendi, externe promovendi)? Of zijn er specifieke categorieën die eruit springen? Wie zijn de tegenstemmers? Welke vormen kan de kritiek aannemen?Hoe stellen de promotoren zich op wier promovendi in de commissies op grote problemen stuiten? Gaan de voorstemmers het gevecht aan met de tegenstemmers en hoe luidt dan de uiteindelijke beslissing? In paragraaf zes gaat het over de kern van dit rapport, de inhoud van de kritiek. Als een dissertatie in eerste instantie wordt afgewezen, waarop richt zich dan de kritiek? Gaat het hier om een grote variatie van kritiekpunten, of richt de kritiek zich op enkele hoofdzaken?Het rapport sluit de gevolgen van de afwijzing. Text

Inge van der Weijden, Evan de Gelder, Christine Teelken, Marian Thunnissen (2017). Welk gras is groener? Persoonlijke verhalen van gepromoveerden over hun loopbanen binnen en buiten de wetenschap.
10 portretten van gepromoveerden die werken buiten de wetenschap & 3 persoonlijke verhalen van werkgevers. Aandacht voor transferable skills en aanbevelingen voor promovendi/gepromoveerden, universiteiten en buitenwetenschappelijke werkgevers. [Link]

Op 20 januari 2017 organiseerde het Nederlands Expertise Centrum voor de Promotieopleiding bij en met steun van de TU Delft een conferentie over de kwaliteit van de in Nederland verdedigde dissertaties. Directe aanleiding om deze dag te organiseren is dat we in Nederland veel weten over het promotierendement, de promotieduur en de arbeidsmarktperspectieven, maar geen onderbouwde conclusies kunnen trekken wat betreft de kwaliteiten van het eindproduct van al die promotieinspanningen. Naar aanleiding van de vooraf verzamelde informatie en de gedachtewisselingen tijdens de discussiedag hebben wij een verslag geschreven:

• Dissertatiekwaliteit – Tussenstand 2017.

Op de pagina Ontmoetingen vindt men de presentaties en ‘good practices’

Waaijer CJF, Sonneveld H, Buitendijk SE, van Bochove CA, van der Weijden ICM (2016) The Role of Gender in the Employment, Career Perception and Research Performance of Recent PhD Graduates from Dutch Universities. PLoS ONE 11(10): e0164784. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0164784
The study is based on a survey of persons who obtained a PhD from one of five Dutch universities between 2008 and early 2012. We show that gender differences in post-PhD careers are non-existent in some aspects studied, but there are small differences in other aspects, such as sector of employment, type of contract, involvement in teaching and management, and career perception. In contrast, male and female PhDs differ sharply on two factors. The first is field of PhD, females being heavily underrepresented in engineering and the natural sciences. The second is part-time employment, females being much more likely to work part-time than males, especially if they work in the Netherlands. Text

Nieuwe publicatie

Cathelijn J. F. Waaijer • Rosalie Belder • Hans Sonneveld • Cornelis A. van Bochove • Inge C. M. van der Weijden: Temporary contracts: effect on job satisfaction and personal lives of recent PhD graduates. In this study, we assess the effects of temporary employment on job satisfaction and the personal lives of recent PhD graduates. Compared to PhDs employed on a permanent contract, PhDs on a temporary contract are less satis?ed with their terms of employment, especially if they have no prospect of permanence. Temporary contracts with no prospect of permanence also decrease satisfaction with job content. Conversely, self-employment increases satisfaction with job content. Educational level required for the job also in?uences job satisfaction to a large degree: working below PhD level negatively affects job satisfaction. Finally, the type of contract affects different aspects of the personal lives of PhDs, such as the ability to obtain a mortgage, the stability of family life, and the possibility to start a family. Text: 2016 Temporary contracts Waaijer etc. Interview about this research, page 13 Research Europe.

A TuDelft magazine for PhD candidates…. Your doctoral adventure, your story.

“This Magazine is a platform for PhD candidates (Noeska Smit and Eleni Papadonikolaki), alumnus (Robert Nieuwenhuizen), DE trainers (Margaret Welten & Niels Tekke), a supervisor (Fulvio Scarano) and industry (Andre Steenhuis from Allseas) to share with you the importance of the skills that are acquired and how you will apply them to your PhD and future careers. The magazine also shows: facts and figures, examples and insights of doctoral candidates about the content of their current job and their acquired skills; the DE competences and skills model; description of the competences and skills; the competency guide to help to review competences and performance levels.”

Link: Doctoral-education-magazine

Nieuwe publicaties

• TuDelft: PhD Selection Guide. How to get the right PhD candidate. Selecting the right PhD candidate is an important first step in a successful PhD programme. From defining the project through to appointing the PhD candidate, this selection guide enables a professional recruitment and selection of PhD candidates. Meer informatie.
• Hans Sonneveld: Selection and admission of doctoral candidates. Manual for Doctoral Programs, Graduate and Research Schools. Answering the question “which aspect of the PhD supervision is the most difficult ?” we answer: the selection of doctoral candidates …Why is this part of our job so difficult? What can a director of a doctoral program do to raise the quality of the selection to a higher level? These are the questions we will answer in this chapter. Meer informatie.
• Technical University of Denmark: Results from a survey among PhD graduates and recruiters. As one of Europe’s leading technical universities, Technical University of Denmark (DTU) constantly focuses on ensuring the high quality and relevance of its study programmes. This of course also applies to the PhD programme with the number of enrolled PhD students increasing to approximately 1,500 in 2015. DTU has commissioned this survey of PhD graduates and recruiters in order to ensure the high quality and positive development of its PhD programme. Meer informatie.
• Associations of universities of science and technology – CESAER, CLUSTER, EuroTech Universities Alliance, IDEA League and Nordic Five Tech: Innovative doctoral traning at universities of science and technology.This discussion paper aims to highlight some best practices and challenges that TU’s encounter in the development of their doctoral training programmes. Meer informatie.
• Colette Kleemann-Rochas, Graziella Farina, Mercedes Fernandez. Mireille Michel: Comment rédiger un rapport, un mémoire, un projet de recherche, une activité de recherche en cours ? Il existe quelques dizaines de guides donnant des conseils sur la rédaction d’un rapport. Quelques-uns, tout comme le nôtre, sont gratuitement téléchargeables sur la toile (voir « Notre bibliographie »). L’originalité de ce manuel est qu’on y trouve également une dizaine de pages toutes prêtes servant de canevas pour rédiger un rapport. Meer informatie.
• League of European Research Universities: Maintaining a quality culture in doctoral education at research-intensive universities. Doctoral programmes within LERU aim to train the next generation of researchers to the highest skill levels in order to launch creative, critical and autonomous intellectual risk takers. In addition, the modern doctorate needs to provide excellent training for roles beyond research and higher education. How can universities ensure that these objectives will be achieved? They do this by ensuring that they maintain doctoral training embedded in a strong research culture and through Quality Assurance (QA) processes which scrutinise and enhance this culture and the activities. Meer informatie.
• Wageningen School of Social Sciences: Procedures, Principles and Good Practices for Supervising PhD candidates. For a successful PhD project, the relation between a PhD candidate and supervisors is a key issue. As a graduate school, WASS is responsible for safeguarding the quality of supervision. The WASS Committee on Scientific Integrity, together with the WASS community, has developed eight basic principles for effective interaction between PhD candidates and their supervisors….Most importantly, and especially for this Guide, many WASS supervisors and PhD candidates have shared their
  experiences on the do’s and don’ts of supervision with us.Meer informatie.