1a The Aarhus University Strategy 2008-2012: Focused talent development

This action plan for Aarhus University's PhD programmes is intended to contribute to the university's development and implementation of strategies for its core activities, specifically the core activity of ‘Focused Talent Development’.

On the subject of focused talent development, the Aarhus University Strategy 2008-2012: Quality and Diversity contains the following statement:

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The aims and objectives of Aarhus University are:

• to ensure that the quality of the PhD degree programmes compares favourably with the best in the world
• to recruit top talents from Denmark and abroad to unique environments, where they feel free to pursue the unexpected
• to double the number of researchers educated and developed at the university from 2008 to 2012
• to offer a consistent researcher development programme for the greatest talents from the Bachelor’s degree level

The University of Aarhus has decided:

• to strengthen the university’s strategic international alliances
• to create a financial framework that enables the researcher development environments to be characterised by creativity and curiosity
• to ensure that the university’s best researchers can give priority to advising and coaching at Master’s degree, PhD degree and postdoctoral levels
• to offer five-year researcher development programmes which allow qualified candidates to develop their competencies in the context of a coherent programme, for example from BA to PhD level or from Master’s level up to and including postdoctoral level

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In addition to the general strategy document cited above, Aarhus University's work with strategic planning has thus far resulted in the formulation of strategies for each of the university’s nine main academic areas as well as for selected critical issues, including internationalisation. These strategies provide the framework for the university's activities within a given area for a five-year period, first and foremost by articulating specific visions and objectives.

The present action plan details concrete initiatives for the realisation of these strategic visions and objectives for a specific aspect of focused talent development at Aarhus University: PhD education.

The decision to focus on this specific dimension of talent development is anything but arbitrary. Universities all over the world are currently prioritising doctoral education [Global PhD]. As evidenced by the aims and objectives outlined above, Aarhus University has set extremely ambitious talent development goals, not least with reference to its PhD degree programmes. The university's goal is to foster PhD programmes comparable in quality to the best in the world, while at the same time increasing the number of researchers it trains and develops. This goal alone represents an extraordinary demand for a focused effort at all levels of the university, from the highest levels of administration down to the individual staff member, particularly in light of the current intense global focus on PhD education.

Thus, this action plan focuses specifically and exclusively on PhD education at Aarhus University. This narrow focus is the result of a conscious choice made in full awareness of the fact that the university’s strategy and initiatives with regard to PhD programmes require coordination with the strategies and initiatives developed for a number of other areas.

To take one example, because PhD education is (as already described) treated in Aarhus University’s general strategy for talent development, the present plan must be coordinated with a general plan for the university’s initiatives to promote the other aspects of the broader talent development programme (postdoctoral studies, tenure track, etc.).

Yet another example relates to the university’s strategy and initiatives for internationalisation. The modern PhD programme is by definition an international matter; therefore, the PhD programme action plan must harmonise with the university’s strategy and initiatives for internationalisation in general.

In light of the fact that the costs associated with PhD education are higher in Denmark than in most other countries in the world, any plan to increase the number of PhD students dramatically must take the financial preconditions for such an expansion into account, which involves both the national framework of public funding for PhD programmes as well as the financial situation and management of both the university as a whole and of the main academic areas. Conversely, PhD education will become a significant parameter in the allocation of basic funding among the institutions of the Danish public university system in the coming years, which provides yet another strong argument in favour of strengthening Aarhus University’s PhD education through initiatives such as the present action plan.

It is important to emphasise here that the action plan is exclusively directed at the university as an institutional framework for PhD programmes, and is concerned to address what can and should be done to guarantee the quality of the many elements of which a modern, structured PhD programme is composed. In the last analysis, all plans of action depend for their effectiveness on what actually takes place within this institutional framework. In the present case, the supervision process at the core of any PhD programme constitutes the critical activity.

1b PhD degree programmes at Aarhus University

In line with a general international trend, PhD education in Demark has undergone significant development over the course of the last ten years. Generally speaking, this development has seen a transition from the PhD education as an apprenticeship exclusively centred on participation in a research project to a structured educational programme that, in addition to research, contains additional mandatory elements such as coursework, travel/study abroad, and knowledge dissemination.

The Bologna process model, in which the PhD programme is understood as the highest of three cycles of higher education qualification (above Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programmes), is a clear expression of this formalisation.

The Danish University Act was amended in 2007 to reflect this development [the University Act 2007]. For the first time, doctoral programmes and PhD committees were presented as statutory institutions at Danish universities with formal responsibility for all PhD education in Denmark. The trend towards more structured doctoral programmes continues in the subsequent 2008 amendment of the PhD Order [Ministerial Order on the PhD programme at the Universities]. Both legal measures were a response to A Public Good, the 2006 evaluation of Danish PhD programmes [A Public Good, PhD Education in Denmark, Report from an International Evaluation Panel].

 At Aarhus University, the new provisions in the University Act regarding PhD education resulted in the establishment of eight graduate schools, each with its own focus.

• Humanities
• Health Sciences
• Social Sciences
• Theology and the Study of Religion
• Science
• Agricultural Science
• Business
• Educational Research

The National Environmental Research Institute (NERI) is actively involved in the PhD education offered by several of the graduate schools listed above.

The eight graduate schools at Aarhus University are organisational units that operate within the framework set out by the University Act and the PhD Order. As a consequence, many aspects of the organisation and function of the graduate schools are identical. For example, the PhD education offered by each graduate school is organised into a number of academic programmes (fields), and each graduate school has an elected PhD committee with representatives from the academic staff and the PhD students. At the same time, there are of course significant differences between the graduate schools.

To some extent, these differences are historical in origin: while some of the main academic areas at Aarhus University have a long tradition for PhD education, others have less experience -which presents both advantages and disadvantages. Differences with regard to the relative weight granted research and coursework at the doctoral level by various academic disciplines, both in Denmark and internationally, are also naturally reflected in Aarhus University's eight graduate schools.

Differences which reflect specific academic traditions and norms are only to be expected in a situation in which the very concept of ‘doctoral training’ is subject to continual development, a development which is neither even nor unidirectional, either in Denmark or internationally.

Over the years, Aarhus University has been in the vanguard of the Danish debate on the development of the concept of structured PhD education. For example, in 1991, Aarhus University was the first to point out that completion times for PhD candidates were too long. As a consequence, the university introduced an integrated MA/PhD programme option, which offers Master’s students early admission to a doctoral programme – the so-called ‘4+4 track’.

Today, Oother Danish universities are beginning to offer similar integrated MA/PhD programmes, in recognition of their effectiveness as an an instrument for improving the quality of PhD programmes.

With the increasing adoptation of the Bologna model by (in particular) European universities, it has become increasingly evident that transferring to a new educational institution on completion of a Bachelor's or Master's degree programme is a natural and attractive choice for many students. To increase the quality and quantity of international applications to its PhD programmes, Aarhus University has taken a step further along the road of the integrated MA/PhD programme. The university now offers students the option of even earlier admission to a PhD programme via the so-called 3+5 track (popularly known as Bologna-Danese). This type of programme is an integrated part of the Bologna process; on completion of a Bachelor’s degree, talented students are admitted directly to a programme which combines a Master's programme with the first year of a PhD programme.

Figure 1 shows the three programme types offered by Aarhus University's graduate schools: 5+3 (Bologna), 4+4 and 3+5 (Bologna-Danese). It should be mentioned that there are differences in the relative emphasis placed on the three models by the individual graduate schools, and that the Faculty of Health Sciences offers six-year Master’s programmes, unlike the other main academic areas.

 Figure 1 – Degree programme structure at Aarhus University – admission to PhD programmes

 

A more recent example of Aarhus University’s foresight and focus on PhD education is the university's 2006 decision to develop a comprehensive electronic online system to manage all administration and quality assurance related to the individual PhD-students. There are three phases in the system: applications and admission; portfolio; and financial management. The first phase has already been implemented by the majority of the university's eight graduate schools and will soon be in place at all of them. The portfolio phase is still being tested, and development of the financial management phase has not begun. According to the long-term plan, all of the country's graduate schools will eventually adopt the system.

This plan of action is based on the current organisational structure of PhD education at Aarhus University: eight graduate schools and a joint committee (of the heads of graduate schools) working in collaboration with the Rector’s Office. While the contents of the plan will remain valid notwithstanding what future changes in the organisation of the university occur, the plan does not at present include any reference to organisational changes[1]; However, in the course of developing the plan, it has become clear that a greater involvement of the PhD students in this joint university effort to further improve PhD education would be desirable. The plan is intended to improve the quality of the PhD education offered by the existing graduate schools - with all due respect for the differences between the main academic disciplines. In other words, the goal of the plan is not to identify and impose a 'lowest common denominator’ of practice on the graduate schools, but to generally set ambitious overall standards for the quality of PhD education at Aarhus University.

Thus, the plan seeks to promote the development of a common understanding of 'best practice' for the areas which are specific to individual graduate schools, while at the same time identifying those areas in which the graduate schools might best fulfil their responsibilities through a joint effort or through expanded central support functions. In this sense, the action plan can be understood as a contribution to a more systematic exploitation of the positive effects of the mergers behind the present structure at Aarhus University.

The decision to establish a 'PhD House' at Aarhus University was made as this

action plan was being prepared. The PhD House will become a unique resource centre for PhD education at Aarhus University and the site of PhD-related activities of benefit to all main academic areas (for example, housing for foreign PhD students). The PhD House will be established on the central campus in Aarhus. It is expected that a number of the initiatives recommended in the action plan will be integrated into the activities and responsibilities of the PhD House; in particular, it is expected that the PhD House will form the institutional locus of a close collaboration with the university's International Centre.

1c The structure of the plan of action

As explained above, this action plan is intended to supplement the university's general strategy by providing a catalogue of concrete recommendations and initiatives intended to support the university's objectives for the area of PhD education.

The plan is structured in terms of seven general aspects of PhD education which can be evaluated in terms of quality:

• Recruitment and admission
• Internationalisation
• Quality assurance
• PhD courses and knowledge dissemination
• Submission, thesis and defense
• The job market
• Programme scale and financing

Each of these topics is divided into the following headings:

• Status
• Objectives
• Initiatives

For each initiative, the plan specifically identifies the agents who should be given responsibility for concrete actions. Generally speaking, the action plan recommends that responsibility for initiatives related to infrastructure shared by all eight graduate schools should be centralised, while all other initiatives (including those specific to particular academic fields of study) should be carried out at the level of the individual graduate school. The plan of action also includes an overview of initiatives related to and parties involved in the doctoral programmes offered at Aarhus University along with a presentation of the plan's recommendations in table form and a summary of selected recommendations for each area of responsibility and activity (see Section 10).

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[1] In February 2010, after a decision on the action plan had been taken, the university launched an institutional reform which will be finalised in June 2010.