2a Status

Perhaps the most important parameter for the quality of a graduate school is the quality of its students. If Aarhus University is to fulfil the ambitious qualitative and quantitative goals it has set for its graduate programmes, it is therefore crucial that its graduate schools develop the strategies and tools to ensure the best possible foundation for recruitment of the most talented candidates, locally, nationally and internationally.

In 2008, an equal number of male and female PhD students were enrolled at Aarhus University, with some graduate schools showing a different distribution. There was, however, great variation exists among the graduate schools with regard to the average age of PhD students who were awarded a doctorate in the same year: from age thirty to age forty-eight. About 16% of the university’s PhD students were of foreign nationality in 2008; the proportion varied significantly among the individual graduate schools.

Aarhus University as a whole has a limited number of graduate students enrolled in the Industrial PhD Programme. The considerable potential of this programme for a qualitative and quantitative expansion of the university's doctoral programmes remains to be exploited - with due awareness of the special possibilities and challenges presented by the programme's particular structure.

Most recruitment of PhD students occurs as a consequence of talent-spotting 'in our own backyard' as well as of direct contact between Aarhus University staff members and other research institutions in Denmark and abroad. However, research institutions all over the world are increasingly supplementing this traditional form of recruitment by more systematic, centrally coordinated recruitment efforts.

The university’s centralised recruitment efforts are at present limited to memberships in a number of university networks offering various types of exchange agreements. The [Coimbra Group] is a good example of such a network. In addition, the university has a PhD website from which the individual graduate schools' websites can be accessed. There is a link to this website from the Coimbra Group’s website. The shared PhD website contains relatively little text and offers no functions or promotional materials to prospective PhD students. All such material as exists is located at the level of the individual graduate school website.

Recruitment of foreign PhD students is hampered by the fact that the Danish system does not allow agreements on dual degrees or joint degrees. In addition, the current rules on tuition payment make early recruitment of foreign students from non-EEA countries difficult; the law requires that students from these countries who have not yet been awarded a Master’s degree be charged tuition on the grounds of parallel enrolment in the PhD and Master’s programmes.

Each of the eight graduate schools works to ensure both the quality and the quantity of its applicant pool and PhD students. The graduate schools employ a broad range of recruitment strategies, including ads in journals and newspapers, websites, promotional brochures, orientation meets and networks. However, there exists no general overview of the effectiveness of these individual recruitment strategies and initiatives.

And while the individual graduate schools also work very seriously to ensure the quality of evaluation procedures for handling applications for admission and for scholarships, no systematic effort is made to collect and evaluate experiences or joint initiatives regarding procedures for handling applications.

Applications for admissions and scholarships (including the application phase and the subsequent processing of applications) are supported by the university’s shared online system, which is in operation at the majority of the graduate schools. There are two university-wide semi-annual deadlines for applications for admission and for scholarships. The deadlines are announced centrally as well as by each individual graduate school.

Currently, there is no tradition for targeted recruitment across the main academic areas at Aarhus University. By the same token, there are as yet few examples of individual PhD projects offered jointly between graduate schools. On the other hand, there are numerous examples of specific PhD courses of study which involve supervisors from several main academic areas. NERI (the National Environmental Research Institute) in particular is actively involved in the supervision of students enrolled at graduate schools at other main academic areas.

2b Objectives

In order for Aarhus University to fulfil its strategic objectives in the area of PhD education, the university must make a sustained and focussed effort to maintain and increase the quality of its recruitment efforts.

As a consequence of globalisation, students all over the world – including students from Aarhus University – are becoming increasingly mobile. Therefore, Aarhus University must brace itself for the international competition to attract and retain the most promising research talents, both at home and abroad. Universities all over the world are devoting massive resources to the competition for the best minds; it is absolutely essential for Aarhus University to gain a reputation as a strong contender in the field.

---

Aarhus University’s objectives for initiatives in the area of recruitment and admissions to its PhD programmes are to ensure that

•  individual graduate schools gain access to the best possible applicant pool - both quantitatively and qualitatively;
• the individual graduate schools become capable of identifying the most promising researcher talents for their PhD programmes, both among their own students and students from other institutions;
• the application process for all PhD scholarships becomes open, competitive and equal opportunity;
• the university admits an increasing proportion of PhD students matriculated from other institutions; 
• a flexible framework for mobility and credit transfer within the university's own programmes and graduate schools is developed.

---

2c Initiatives

Formulation of admissions targets

The individual graduate schools should address Aarhus University’s objective of a strong increase in the number of PhD students by developing recruitment strategies. The graduate schools admit their students exclusively on the basis of qualitative evaluations, and therefore the function of a recruitment strategy is first and foremost to ensure the quality (and proportionately the quantity) of applicants. We recommend that the recruitment strategies of the graduate schools be based on

• general targets for the composition of their PhD student body with reference to such parameters as field of study, gender, age, geographical origin, linked to a:
• focus on the recruitment strategies and initiatives which have been evaluated as best suited to ensure that the targets are met.

These recruitment strategies should be developed in the context of collaboration between the individual graduate schools, and a forum for the exchange of experiences regarding the effectiveness of various recruitment strategies and initiatives should be established.

In addition, a general survey of recruitment strategies and initiatives should be carried out (promotional brochures, media, web pages, the use of ‘ambassadors’, (exchange) networks, etc.), and that experiences from all of the university’s graduate schools regarding the effectiveness of these strategies and initiatives be systematically gathered. (Which approaches work best in particular regions or in relation to the goal of recruiting young students, etc.).

Agents: University management, AU Communication, International Centre, AU Studies Administration and the graduate schools.

Publicity and branding

High-quality promotional materials (in the form of brochures or a similar format) should be developed that are in conformity with the university's graphic design programme and which will remain current over a longer period of time. This material should include central information about Aarhus University as well as a short introduction to the breadth and quality of its research activities, in addition to the strength of the university's interdisciplinary research environments. The material should be produced to a high finish in high-quality materials. The material should also include an introduction to the individual graduate schools (with contact information, websites, etc.).

The material should be developed and presented both in Danish and in English. The Danish version should be prioritised for a number of reasons. Awareness of the option of doctoral studies among our own students would probably be increased by such material, especially with regard to early recruitment to the 4 +4 and 3+5 tracks. In addition, the mobility of students within the Danish university system is remarkably low in comparison with practically every other country. Therefore, Aarhus University should contribute to an increased awareness of the programmes it offers by means of publicity with broad appeal and a clear message.

Researchers would be able to take such material to professional events, and it would be made available for download on the AU website. Other possible forms of publicity include handing out free memory sticks with the AU logo and promotional materials on PhD programmes0}

Agents: AU Communication and the graduate schools

Websites 

The material described above should be suitable for use on the new AU PhD websites. In other words, the development of this material should be coordinated with a complementary redevelopment of the university's PhD websites - especially the shared 'welcome' page for PhD education.

The development process should be well-structured, and it should take place in collaboration with the redevelopment of the graduate school websites. This would allow graduate schools to reuse the same photos, text and other elements, and at the same time would help address the well-known challenge with regard to updating information on the graduate school websites. It would without a doubt be a good idea to make the graduate school websites more engaging by including personal histories with quotes from PhD students.

Finally, all of Aarhus University’s PhD-related websites should be structured so as to allow readers at different levels (university, main academic area, graduate school, graduate programme) to subscribe to updates (news, course offerings, rules and regulations, notices, etc.). This means that all updates should be implemented at one well-defined site with subsequent automatic updates to all subscriber pages.

Agents: AU Communication and the graduate schools

Early recruitment

The university’s strategy for recruitment to its PhD programmes should be coordinated with a strategy for the recruitment of Danish and foreign students to the university’s Master’s programmes. In particular, the 3+5 and 4+4 tracks should be employed to attract students with doctoral potential and ambitions early in their academic career.

In this connection, a more focused effort to publicise PhD education among AU's own students – and across the main academic areas - would be important. It would also be important for the university to present its own Master’s programmes as a stepping stone to a PhD programme. Ensuring a larger applicant pool of bright, ambitious students for the university's Master's programmes would contribute to a positive increase in competition for admission to the university's PhD programmes.

Recruitment-related promotional materials should therefore be developed in collaboration with the heads of the university's Master's programmes. This is especially relevant with regard to Master's programmes offered in English, but should also include a Danish version aimed at Danish/Nordic students.

In addition, these efforts should be combined with the creation of a special 'elite status'[1] for parts of the university's Master's programmes by offering special seminars, elite courses, master classes, etc. with focus on issues such as project formulation. Such an elite initiative could also take the form of international summer schools aimed at strengthening potential PhD applicants’ project development, etc. For both professional and financial reasons, such an initiative should be carried out in collaboration between two or more related graduate schools.

In this connection, the experiences of the Faculty of Science, which offers a fully integrated MA/PhD programme (the ‘Honours’ model) are particularly relevant to consider.

Aarhus University should actively promote the exemption of students from non-EEA countries who are admitted without a Master’s degree from the legal requirement to pay tuition.

Agents: University management, AU Communication, International Centre, AU Studies Administration and the graduate schools.

Network 

A systematic collaboration between Aarhus University graduate schools and the International Centre should be established with the aim of deriving greater benefit from existing international agreements and networks as well as in order to identify new agreements and networks of potential interest with regard to recruitment.

While a number of potential recruitment channels already exist in the form of both formal and informal collaboration agreements with partner universities, they are not exploited, because the parties involved have limited awareness of them. For example, membership in the Coimbra Group presents many unexploited opportunities, including possibilities for specific exchange agreements.

More invitations to apply for scholarhsips should be publicised via international portals or partnerships in order to reach as many potential applicants as possible. International invitations to apply for PhD scholarships can be systematically publicised on EU’s Euraxess portal and by circulation among the contact groups of the Coimbra Group. Making formal agreements to exchange this type of information in collaboration with other universities is an additional possibility.

In addition, the university should explore the possibility of establishing working partnerships in the area of PhD education with selected international universities, including educational institutions, which do not themselves offer doctoral programmes, but which confer degrees qualifying students for admission to doctoral programmes.

Currently, the information about existing (and non-existent) networks and agreements possessed by the international area, the individual graduate schools and individual international research networks is not shared knowledge. In the first place, therefore, there is a need for a systematic approach to exchanging and disseminating existing information. This seemingly modest initiative would have a significant effect in certain areas.

Finally, an attempt should be made to draw on the Aarhus University alumni association initiative to support recruitment efforts. Selected alumni around the world would be named ‘ambassadors’ in their regions; one of their responsibilities would be to strengthen international recruitment to Aarhus University’s doctoral programmes.

Agents: International Centre and the graduate schools

Applications and admission 

Each graduate school should develop open, transparent criteria for the evaluation of the qualifications necessary for admission to a PhD programme and the criteria for awarding PhD scholarships. Particularly in connection with open invitations to apply for scholarships, it would be an advantage for foreign applicants to be informed in advance of the requirements for admission/scholarships (”We are looking for …”).

Acquiring the experience and expertise necessary to evaluate the qualifications of foreign applicants is a major challenge for all of the university’s graduate schools. To assist them in meeting this challenge, Aarhus University should establish a service to assist the individual graduate schools in evaluating the qualifications of applicants (especially international applications) seeking admission to the 3+5, 4+4 or 5+3 tracks. This would prevent related graduate schools from developing different standards and practices for the evaluation of such degrees as a one-year MA, or for evaluating a prospective student who applies for a PhD scholarship from more than one Aarhus University graduate school at the same time. The definition of academic requirements with regard to the PhD project, special qualifications, and similar issues should naturally remain the responsibility of the individual graduate school.

The online PhD application system should be evaluated and developed on a continuing basis to ensure that the system continues to function optimally in relation to recruitment as well that applications are processed professionally.

The recommended service for the evaluation of international students' qualifications should draw on the expertise of the Danish Agency for International Education in evaluating the qualifications of foreign applicants to other parts of the Danish educational system. Such a service would solve the problem of information access for the graduate schools: for while it is neither practicable nor desirable for all of the university's graduate schools to collect detailed information on the various degree programme structures and marking scales employed in different countries, this information should be easily accessible in connection with the evaluation of international applicans.

The university’s graduate schools should have the option of granting ‘screening grants’[2] to visiting potential applicants to PhD programmes to subsidise a visit of up to a few months. Such a scheme would enable a first-hand evaluation of the student's academic qualifications. In some situations, it might provide the framework for assisting the applicant in preparing a solid application for admission (public invitation to apply).

Agents: University management, the main academic areas and the graduate schools

Cooperation across main academic areas

The graduate schools should explore the possibilities for a more systematic exploitation of any synergy effects with the four new main academic areas created by the mergers of 2007, both in relation to recruitment and to pooling resources in the development and organisation of the PhD education they offer.

In particular, general agreements based on flexible administrative procedures should be drawn up between the graduate schools and NERI. These agreements should cover a pooling of supervisory competences and provide a framework for recognition and balancing of resource input.

Flexible administrative agreements should also be established concerning individual PhD projects in collaboration between two graduate schools, rational use of shared resources, credit transfer, etc.

Agents: The heads of Aarhus University graduate schools

---

[1] This refers to a special elite programme under the Danish Ministry for Research.

[2] A support programme was opened by the AU Research Foundation in January 2010.