Abstract Stip-HF-meeting 25.02.2019

Time: Monday 25 February, 14:00–15:00

Place: Sydneshaugen skole, grupperom H

 

Members of the STIP-HF board present:         

Wassim Rustom (Chair)

Christina Videbech (Secretary)

Ragnhild Gjefsen

Dinara Podgornova

Are Bøe Pedersen

Juliane Tiemann

 

Agenda:

1. Approval of agenda

 Approved.

 

2. Election/confirmation of board chair and secretary

Confimed: Christina Videbech as secretary and Wassim Rustom as chair.

 

3. Information items
4. a) Summary of last meeting for absent members
5. b) Peter Hatlebakk suggested for faculty election board

 

4. Queries received
5. a) Query from Nina Stensaker (PhD fellow at LLE) about controversial hiring process (see attachments 1–3)

The query was discussed in STIP-HF and although everyone agreed that this is important for the future career of many PhDs, it is not a subject to be treated by STIP-HF, but rather by the faculty board. Juliane is going to talk to Nina about this.

 

5. Setting up the workgroup on duty work

The procedures in regards to duty work of the PhDs need to be updated. It should be clear which rights you have as a PhD in this regard. We need a workgroup to develop rules regarding duty work and make them more clear and uniform across HF. The rules should be clear, but also flexible so they can apply to the different types of Phds. They should be written in both norwegian and english

1. a) Mandate for the workgroup
2. b) Suggested members

The Work group should consist of PhD candidates. Members should come from different institutes to make sure that the concerns and rights of all PhDs are considered.

STIP-HF discussed the suggestions of the following members and agreed that they would be very relevant:

• Kimberly Marie Skjelde (Group B representative at the facutly research board (FFU))
• Wassim Rustom
• Ragnhild Gjefsen
• Are Bøe Pedersen

Representatives from FFU boards at the different departments will be invited to join. Wassim is going to contact the relevant people via mail. IF is already represented through Wassim. The representative of LLE is Juliane, who will not join the work group but will stay informed about its activities. This leaves FoF, AHKR, SKOK+SVT.

 

It was also suggested that the members of this workgroup should be able to count their work as part of the duty work. All members need to make certain that their institute approves of this.

 

The group will try to have a first draft, which can be sent to the relevant people in August. In June, STIP-HF will read and discuss this draft.

 

6. Other potential plans for the Spring semester, and division of tasks/responsibilites
7. Previously, STIP-HF has worked on getting an extension of the stipend for PhDs who have been absent from their work for more than 6 months due to sickness or parental leave. NTNU is currently trying this out. The purpose of this extra time (1 month) is for the PhDs to get back to work and consequently avoid them handing in their dissertation too late. Furhtermore, it is a matter of gender equality as the extra time might increase the possibility of women staying in academia after the PhD.

”Ligestillingskomiteen” has written a letter with the arguments for the extension, which they will mail to STIP-HF. It was suggested that this is not only relevant for HF, but maybe for all of UIB. STIP-HF will discuss this further on a later meeting.

 

2. Are, Dinara, and Christina will attend the lunch with dean (invitation received from Elisabeth Akselvoll). They will meet an hour in advance of the meeting and discuss which subjects need to be adressed at the lunch.

The theme of the lunch is the new structure of ”introduction days” for PhDs. Suggested themes for these days are: article based phd, duty work, mental health etc.

STIP-HF discussed the themes and agree that not all of them are suitable. For the lunch with the dean Are, Dinara, and Christina will suggest a theme of mental health as this is a subject, which is not treated well enough in general. PhDs do not have the same rights as other students in regards to access to free therapy and the like. STIP-HF all agree that it would only be fair if PhDs had access to the supportive system of students. Juliane pointed out that this is already a theme, which is discussed in UIBdoc. She will try to get some info on the topic and the progress in UIBdoc. It was suggested that maybe Dinara should be more involved in this work.

It was suggested that maybe such ”introduction days”/”theme days” should be considered a part of the duty work of PhDs.

Wassim will send a reply to Elisabeth’s invitation.

 

3. There are some problems with updating the website of STIP-HF. Furthermore, Wassim and Christina does not have access to the website. Juliane will contact IT in order to correct this.

 

4. Web sites/information of the university in general need to be translated in english so foreign PhDs can understand it. This problem will be discussed on a later meeting.

 

5. Wassim informed everyone that the training component of the PhD, including VITHF900, is being evaluated. Wassim is part of the work group carrying out this evaluation, and will take STIP-HF’s concerns to the process.

 

6. STIP-HF needs to discuss questions surrounding the unfortunate situation of some PhDs not getting their dissertation approved and how to take care of people in this situation. Ragnhild informed the rest of STIP-HF on this topic, which will be discussed further in a future meeting.

 

7. Miscellaneous