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EUA-CDE workshop: ‘Supporting Individual Paths of Doctoral Candidates - Experience, Skills, Guidance’

January 19, 2012

The EUA Council for Doctoral Education’s annual thematic workshop took place last week (12-13 January 2012) at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland. More than 90 members of the EUA-CDE from all over Europe gathered to discuss and debate how to support the individual paths of doctoral candidates and provide them with the right kinds of tailored guidance.

The workshop presentations covered a wide range of topics from talent development and mentoring women to detailed case studies of transferable skills provision, promotion of entrepreneurship and management of doctoral schools. In order to provide a wider ‘non-university’ perspective on doctoral holders’ careers, the workshop programme also included a plenary session with presentations from a private sector employer and a doctorate holder with a career as a radio producer.

The discussions in Dublin demonstrated that it was crucial for institutions to focus on doctoral supervision as well as combining this with mentoring to support doctoral candidates. They also underlined the importance of creating an open and inclusive research environment that promotes dialogue between researchers.

Participants also had rich exchanges on how to manage the differences and commonalities between different disciplines. Finally, the event highlighted that there were differing views about whether to prioritise entrepreneurship and innovation for the needs of employers or to prioritise training in basic research as a long-term qualification for a wide range of careers.

More information about the EUA-CDE is available here: www.eua.be/cde

The presentations from the workshop will soon be available on the event website.