Supervision is the most frequently asked about subject

'If you expect that someone will come and help you, you'll find that rarely happens at university. I had completely unrealistic expectations about what I could achieve during my doctoral studies.'

This is the voice of Aleksandra Popovic, the PhD Student Ombudsman at Lund University. Her tasks include providing advice and information and protecting the interests of third-cycle students.

Doctoral students are responsible for a significant amount of the research that is conducted in Sweden, and many undergo a great deal of stress during their studies. Within the humanities and social sciences, the old view that a doctoral thesis should be a life's work still predominates, despite doctoral students now having only four years in which to write it.

Third-cycle studies are now always seen as studies

'Some problems are structural, such as third-cycle studies not always being regarded as an education,' says Aleksandra Popovic. 'Bachelor's students can make demands, thanks to their being so many of them, while that doctoral students' situation is individualised. In practice, particularly women doctoral students feel that they have enormously high demands placed on them, without receiving adequate resources.'

Changing supervisor is the most common problem that doctoral students want the PhD Student Ombudsman to help with. This is usually related to the doctoral student feeling that he or she receives too little feedback, that the supervisor controls the research and dictates which results that the doctoral students should write about, or even that the supervisor uses the doctoral student's results to promote his/her own or others' research projects.

'However, it's rarer for the supervisor to have ideas about how to organise third-cycle studies so that the doctoral student learns a scientific approach and achieves the qualitative targets. This does not correspond to the requirements of the Higher Education Ordinance, where the faculties must ensure that each doctoral student's third-cycle studies are organised efficiently.'

Fear of ruining career prospects

Many students spend a long time with their problems, and it may take several years before the doctoral student asks to change supervisor. There is a fear that it may influence career prospects or that you will be slandered by your department supervisor. Unfortunately, this fear is not always misplaced, admits Aleksandra Popovic, but she doesn't want to discourage anyone from changing supervisor, which is everyone's right.

'It seems as if conflicts between a doctoral student and a supervisor are often, in my opinion, due to faults with how the work is managed. I usually call a meeting to hear about how studies have been organised; what is the supervisor's academic focus and expertise? What educational focus has the supervisor used to plan the doctoral students' path towards the qualitative targets? Is the supervisor aware of the relevant legislation?'

One tool that Aleksandra Popovic wants to highlight is the individual study plan which, according to the legislation, every doctoral student must have. She believes that many of the conflicts that flare up could have been avoided if a proper review of the study plan had been carried out. For example, it should clearly state how supervision should be designed and organised.

Apart from trying to get departments and supervisors to use individual study plans as a foundation, Aleksandra Popovic also brings up the question in the university's board for third-cycle studies.

Risky to become too close to the supervisor

One important reason for changing supervisor is if a private relationship develops between the supervisor and doctoral student. This is not prohibited, but it is not recommended.

'If a problem occurs, it is almost always the doctoral student that draws the shortest straw and who risks becoming isolated,' says Aleksandra Popovic. 'Sexual harassment is another sensitive issue where there may be a large number of unreported cases. I have not dealt with any myself, but here it is even more important that the doctoral student is not dependent on the supervisor and that a quick change can be made. However, it is more common that doctoral students talk about workplace bullying, which also makes it very difficult to re-establish trust in the supervisor.'

There are also cases in which the supervisor decides who will be the named author of a text and who will have access to the data — regardless of who has actually written the texts or generated the data.

'This is a breach of the principles of intellectual property rights, which are based on owning the product of your own intellectual work. If several people have produced material together, without it being possible to distinguish between who has done what, they all have equal ownership of it, explains Aleksandra Popovic.

Funding must be in place

Problems with funding for third-cycle studies can be even more difficult to solve. Funding should really be in place before the doctoral student is enrolled on the programme but, according to Aleksandra Popovic, universities often compete over the number of doctoral students that are enrolled and receive degrees — despite uncertain financing. Many doctoral students are also so keen to be enrolled that they accept poor conditions. This is one of the reasons for the existence of “shadow" doctoral students, i.e. students who start third-cycle studies without being enrolled.

Lund's students' union for PhD students has made the issue of the university employing all doctoral students from the very first day of their programme its highest priority. The Faculty of Law at Lund University has such an admissions policy.

Most doctoral students assume that everything is organised, and that resources are available to complete the programme — and that everyone has the same rights to social insurance, parental leave and sick pay.

'Doctoral students do not receive enough information and we are still fighting to get a few days for a compulsory introduction, so that everyone can learn more about their rights.'

Find out about your rights at an early stage

For many years, Lund's students' union for PhD students had also demanded a compulsory two-day supervisor course; this was introduced in 2004. Aleksandra Popovic hopes that supervisor certification at Lund University will result in supervisors being motivated to develop their supervisory skills.

A first step in that direction is a proposal for a competence development programme that Lund University's Centre for Educational Development (CED) has developed. Finding out about your rights at an early stage is a good way of avoiding conflicts. Other ways are making demands, becoming involved in the students' union and becoming informed about what you can expect from the workplace.

Aleksandra Popovic believes that it is important to prepare thoroughly for the adoption of the individual study plan, and to think about all the details which must be included according to the legislation. Find out about whether you must go to many conferences and seminars and take too many teaching hours, or whether your time can be used more efficiently.

'Don't forget to include all the preparation time that you may have forgotten about: applying for funding, creating contacts and building networks. Add the amount of time that may be used for things other than writing your thesis.'

No compulsory membership of the students' union

On 1 July 2010, the more than century-old compulsory membership of a students' union was abolished, making it voluntary. The students' unions have established a strong position at Sweden's higher education institutions (HEIs) and have been the party that appoints student representatives to various bodies. They have also been an important part of quality reviews and development work at the HEIs.

Many people are worried that the students' influence will now significantly decrease. However, Aleksandra Popovic believes that HEIs are still organised on the basis of student influence as regards quality assurance and development — and that students should be represented on different bodies.

'State-run HEIs will remain public authorities; increasing autonomy will result in more internal responsibility for the HEIs to organise themselves on the basis of principles of equality,' she says.

Important to highlight the situation of doctoral students

It is important that the situation of doctoral students is properly and continually in focus, and that their voices are heard in the work to create the HEIs of the future. Therefore, Lund's students' union for PhD students works intensively to disseminate information about union activities and their importance for doctoral students. This work includes producing a new website and presentations of the union's and the PhD Student Ombudsman's activities are given at the faculty's and department's introduction courses for doctoral students. Seminars on doctoral students' rights are also held.

'Doctoral students really should join the students' union, because it is important to use your right to exercise influence," says Aleksandra Popovic. “There are ongoing discussions about how to get more doctoral students to join and become involved, in order to make doctoral students' voices heard in the university's organisation.'

The forecast for what would happen after compulsory membership of the students' union was abolished was that half would choose not to join Lund's students' union for PhD students, according to Aleksandra Popovic. However, compared to 2009, the union's membership has not decreased dramatically.

Beware of becoming the supervisor's aide

Aleksandra Popovic also highlights how there are few opportunities for doctoral students to participate in the academic interchange between senior researchers.

'The current position is that there are neither financial nor professional reasons that make it important for the supervisor to ensure things go well for the doctoral student. The risk is thus that you become the supervisor's aide in a research environment in which you never have a context of your own — or that you become isolated in a sparse academic environment in which you cannot learn anything. Students would be much less dependent on their supervisors if they had the opportunity to integrate with other researchers.'

Last updated: 2011-12-14

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