Newsletter from the PhD Council - June 2014

Summer is approaching, but before the holiday season commences the PhD Council has some news we would like to share.

We still need a new member of the PhD Council:
Since Caroline is going on maternity leave soon, we will need a new PhD Council member until the end of 2014. The new member will take over her tasks, which are to act as our treasurer and be in charge of social activities. We highly encourage foreign PhD fellows to join us!

If you are interested in joining, please do not hesitate to contact us on stip-rad@jus.uio.no

General meeting and social event in November
A combined social event and general meeting, along the lines of our May meeting, is tentatively scheduled for the beginning of November. At this meeting we (the PhD fellows) will also elect a new PhD Council for 2015.

Study of the working environment of female PhD fellows
A study of the working environment of female PhD fellows will be conducted this fall. This study follows up two previous studies on the same topic.

Gender equality in the workplace will be the central issue of this comprehensive intervew-based study, which will be conducted by a professional social science researcher this fall. Both current and former female PhD fellows will be invited to participate.

Research assistance for female PhD fellows in the final weeks/months
Earlier the Equality and Diversity Board at the Faculty has been handing out stipends to female PhD fellows that are in need of research assistance at the end of their period of employment. This has now been incorporated into the budgets of the individual institutes. If you are interested in receiving such assistance, please contact your home institute.

Solutions for presently employed foreign PhD fellows without teaching opportunities
There has been discussion in the Programråd for Forskerutdanning (PFF) about teaching opportunities for PhD fellows that are on 3-year contracts. As of now those of you on 3-year contracts are not given any such opportunities as part of your employment. A proposal of how to improve this situation is currently under evaluation.

The draft proposal suggests that the supervisor of the PhD fellow would evaluate the fellow's qualifications. If found qualified by the supervisor, he should present a form to the study planners indicating courses that the fellow is deemed qualified to teach. It is then suggested (and we again underline that this is not agreed) that a PhD fellow in a 3 year contract that teaches will get his/her contract extended by one month for each 9,33 hours teaching (actual time in the classroom, not including preparations).

Evaluation of PhD seminars
It has now been confirmed that the mandatory "A"-seminars that form part of the PhD program will not be subjected to a thorough evaluation this year - in contrast with what we suggested in the previous newsletter.  However, all completed courses are supposed to be evaluated through a questionnaire (Questback).

In closing...
... we would like to remind you that we want to hear your opinions on the topics we are working on, and tips as to issues we should put on our agenda. We are open for feedback at any time! Just grab a hold of one of us, or send us an e-mail on stip-rad@jus.uio.no.

For more information concerning our work, please see the minutes of our meetings, which are available on our website: http://foreninger.uio.no/stipendiatradet/english/minutes/


Best regards
The PHD Council at The Faculty of Law
(Stipendiatrådet ved Det juridiske fakultet)

Publisert 6. aug. 2014 10:04 - Sist endret 6. aug. 2014 10:09