Stip-HF Annual Report 2020

Stip-HF Annual Report 2020
Board members 2020
January 28-September 4: Runa Falck, chair (IF); Mikkel Ekeland Paulsen, secretary (LLE); Emily Maddox (SKOK), Marthe H. Grønsveen (LLE); Dinara Podgornova (SKOK).
September 4-January 29: Runa Falck, chair (IF); Joanna Spyra, secretary (AHKR); Mikkel Ekeland Paulsen (LLE); Marthe H. Grønsveen (LLE); Pernille Reitan Jensen (LLE); Emily Maddox (SKOK)

The Stip-HF members were elected at the general meeting on January 28. We had made a plan for regular payday drinks and a topic day in April, when Corona restricted our activities in March. Since the payday drinks could not go through as usual, the first ever digital Stip-HF quiz was held on April 1.

Our focus this spring then switched to figuring out what was happening with the contract extension which UiB had initially promised would be given to all the PhD candidates, but which was later delegated to the faculties. We tried to map how the application process was handled at the different departments at HF and also at other faculties. Furthermore, we discussed the issue with the group B representatives in the faculty and university board, and other interest groups for PhD candidates at other faculties, as well as with the HR responsible at our faculty.
On May 19, we organized an online topic day with the topic “Working from Home”, where approximately 30 people attended. The topic day consisted of a workshop on how to stay well while social distancing, followed by a session with the faculty leadership on what would happen regarding the contract extensions.

When the Corona rules were relaxed, Stip-HF organized a summer BBQ in Nygårdsparken on June 26.

On September 4, we held a new general meeting. Dinara Podgornova resigned, and Joanna Spyra and Pernille Reitan Jensen were elected new members.

The fall was mostly spent organizing a topic day on dissertation assessment. Unfortunately we had to make also this event an online one, due to changed restrictions the week before. Despite this, around 70 people attended the topic day “Dissertations and their assessment: a glimpse into the black box” on November 12.

In December we hosted two online social events, a Christmas quiz on December 10 and a Christmas lunch on December 15.

In addition to these activities, we have stayed in touch with the faculty board representatives from group B throughout the year. We have provided input prior to the faculty board meetings when the representatives have notified us about issues relevant for PhD candidates.