STIP-HF 2022
Spring
Stip-HF started the year with a general meeting, where we elected our new board. The new board was: Anna-Marie Kjøde Olsen, Peder Lippert Fuglevik, Marie Lund Stokka, Mohamed Aidarus Noor, Katrine Annesdatter Madsen and Pernille Reitan Jensen.
In the constitutional meeting, Anna-Marie was elected secretary and Pernille was elected chair.
We started our first semester by hosting payday drinks in February and April at Ad fontes.
On 11th–12th May, STIP-HF organized a writing retreat at Hotel Ullensvang. Eight Ph.D. candidates signed up and attended. The retreat’s aim was social, i.e., to better get to know Ph.D. candidates across the department, as well as focus on our writing, make progress in our writing, and learn more about efficient ways of working. We tested sessions of 50 + 10 minutes work/break and sessions of 25 + 5 minutes work/break. STIP-HF organized transport in private cars, and each candidate paid for the stay at Hotel Ullensvang with their project funding (‘driftsmidlar’).
The Spring Topic day was arranged on the 18th of may at Det Akademiske kvarter. The main topic is precarity in Academia and how this affects Ph.D. students and our future careers. We focused on four major themes: The statistics of temporary employees at HF, looking at how many temporary employees there are, their backgrounds, and how long they are in temporary positions. Temporality and internationalization, with academics from different international backgrounds talking about their academic experiences and how to get a permanent position in academia in their native countries. How temporality affects women in academia, by discussing the gender balance within permanent academic positions and how women’s career options are affected by the structures of academia. Lastly, we had a talk about Union perspectives on Post Docs and the ideal versus the reality of Post Docs as qualifying for a permanent academic position.
Fall
We started the fall semester with Anna-Marie leaving for a stay abroad, so Katrine took over as the secretary in Stip-HF. Peter Sebastian Hatlebakk joined the board. The board decided to focus on writing and social activities this fall by hosting a writing retreat that was more low threshold, so it was easier for more PhDs to join.
On 27-29 September, Stip-hf hosted a three-day writing seminar at UiB. For this event, we wanted the attendance threshold to be as low as possible, so Stip-HF accommodated everyone with lunch, coffee, tea, and snacks each day. Furthermore, we invited Laura Saetveit Miles to give a workshop on writing strategies, obstacles, etc. On the first day of the seminar, Saetveit Miles introduced specific strategies for handling writing blockages and a lack of motivation, such as the techniques of ‘snack writing’ and ‘placeholder.’
From Laura Miles’ workshop:
Due to high attendance (27), each day, Stip-HF divided attendants into ‘work groups’ of 4-5 people so that everyone would get to know someone new each day. These groups also functioned as intimate groups for sharing goals, successes, and obstacles during the three days. All in all, the format of the writing seminar proved to be a very successful one. 27 Ph.D. students attended. The feedback we received at the end of the seminar was very positive. In particular, people found the techniques introduced by Saetveit Miles in her workshop to be great for motivation and writing efficiency. In addition, attendants found it very fruitful to work in a group setting according to a rigid schedule (like at Ullensvang), and people liked the low threshold format: that it was easy to attend since the location was in Bergen, and that Stip-HF provided food, coffee, etc. all three days.
Both in August and September, we hosed payday drinks at Ad fontes. In October, we tried something new for our payday drinks: a movie night at Sydneshaugen with the movie Don’t look up. This was not a popular event; only four showed up. In November and December, we had regular payday drinks at Ad fontes.
1st and 2nd of December, 13 Ph.D. candidates traveled to Voss for a writing retreat. We stayed at Fleischers Hotel. We were PhDs from AHKR, LLE, SKOK, and IF, and a guest Ph.D. from UiA. We worked on our texts in 50-minute sessions and had six sessions each day. Like the previous writing retreats, we shared goals and expected obstacles with our colleagues during the day. We had social lunches and dinner. Some also tried out the Hotel pool Thursday evening. This retreat was funded by each PhDs project funding (‘driftsmidlar’).
In addition to hosting different events, Stip-HF has regularly contact with group B representatives on various boards and committees. This year, the group B representative in the faculty board was on the board of Stip-HF, but we have also had contact with the group B representative in HF FFU to discuss relevant issues regarding Ph.D. education. For Stip-HF, an important issue in fall 2022 has been compensation for being on the Stip-HF board for PhDs without duty work in their contract. When we enter 2023, this still needs to be discussed further.
Stip-HF has also submitted input for the new University strategy (autumn 2022) and the new HF strategy (autumn 2022). You can find our input below:
University Democracy
- We support extending democratically elected academic leadership throughout the university to all faculties and units. University democracy is an important part of university life because it provides collegiate, academic leadership and research autonomy and a safety valve to change leadership if it is in the interest of the academic milieu.
- Temporary employees should be represented on the boards by an elected representative at all units, including (for instance) the research clusters, the Sars center, the Bjerknes center, the university library in Bergen, the university centers in Athens and Rome, etc.: the absence of temporary employees from the governing bodies of units involved in research education is particularly egregious, and constitute a minimalist interpretation of the university law.
- Temporary employees who represent Group B in boards and commissions should be compensated for their duty work or an extension to the temporary employment period at standard rates throughout the university; the duty work accreditation should reflect the actual work involved.
Organizations for temporary employees
- The qualitative expansion of university democracy requires organizations for temporary employees, both at the faculty and the university level. While primarily social, these organizations have a key role to play in the creation of a common sphere for temporary employees and as a hearing institution allowing for broader Group B participation, providing a council for faculty boards and leadership.
- Organizations for temporary employees like Stip-HF, Psyk-Stip, and UiB Doc must be awarded the financial resources to cover the running costs of at least biannual seminars to promote engagement. In addition, the smooth long-term running of these organizations is a joint university interest. Therefore, it should be compensated as duty work or an extension to the temporary employment period at a common standard rate throughout the university.
- Faculty leadership should consult faculty organizations for temporary employees about Group B appointments at the faculty as a matter of course, for instance to FFU. Appointments of Group B representatives at the university and faculty levels should follow a transparent calendar (årshjul), allowing for participation.
- Information channels, like the e-mail contact information of Group B employees, should be accessible to the organizations for temporary employees.
Employment rights
- The legally mandated employer-employee consultation (medarbeidersamtalen) is an important dialogue point for temporary employees. The current situation where the university is unable to provide consultation for almost half of the temporary employees is untenable. The dialogue is of particular interest to Group B because of its specific character as a dialogue with a leader who is also an academic staff member, outside the ordinary tutorial relationship. The institute leadership level should be sufficiently staffed to ensure that all temporary employees are given the annual consultation, or institutes small enough to ensure the goal.
- Postdoctoral employment must provide genuine permanent employment qualification, including sufficient teaching duties, pedagogical training, and independent research time. Postdoctoral terms should be of at least three years duration.
- Courses in basic academic skills like pedagogics and Norwegian language courses should be provided throughout the university. In addition, late-shift Norwegian language courses are essential for disciplines with set office or laboratory hours and should be prioritized.
- Information in English about basic institutional questions like employee health and employee-employer dialogue should be easily available through the HR web pages of UiB.