FEB PhD Council

Welcome to the page of the FEB PhD Council. We focus on the representation of PhD researchers within the faculty and university. On this page we give some information about our mission, activities, accomplishments, and members as well as some useful links.

Mission

• Represent and promote the interests – in- and outside the faculty – of all FEB PhD students, regardless of their status (employed or scholarship).
• Aid communication between the Graduate School and PhD students.
• Ensure the voice of PhD students is heard at the policy discussions regarding them.

Activities

• Identify issues relevant to FEB PhD students
  • directly raised to the council;
  • in the reports of the bi-annual PhD-survey conducted by the university;
  • other reports and policy documents.
• Regularly meet with FEB Graduate School to:
  • raise general issues concerning PhD students;
  • act as a sounding board to FEB Graduate School for ideas concerning PhD students.
• Represent PhD students of FEB at the university level:
  • within the Groningen Graduate Researchers Interest Network (GRIN);
  • at inter-faculty discussions between PhD councils through the Platform Interfaculty Collaboration PhD candidates Community.
• Pursue representation of PhD students in the faculty council by:
  • actively searching for PhD students willing to run for election for a seat in the faculty council;
  • providing information to electable PhD students during the faculty elections;
  • raising PhD-related issues to and being the sounding board for the faculty council.
• Support and facilitate communication with the PhD representative in the Programme Committee.
• Participate in and be visible during the onboarding events for new PhD students through an introduction presentation (together with the PhD committee) and a tour through the facilities on the first working day.

Accomplishments

• Collected testimonies from PhD bursary students and represented these issues to inter-faculty PhD council meetings and graduate schools, particularly with raising issues with uncertainty regarding extensions and teaching obligations.
• Assisted with onboarding of new PhD researchers to the FEB.
• Assisted with an overview of different PhD statuses and accompanying teaching obligations and restrictions for greater clarity in the PhD manual provided by FEB Graduate School.
• Reviewed and helped revise missing information in the PhD manual that was essential for PhD’s (e.g., health resources, availability of confidential advisors, PhD support groups, financial procedures in projects).

Members & contact

• Lotte Swank
• Stefan Sliwa Ruiz
• Robin Konietzny
• Michael Fröhlke

• Mirle van Merksteijn

You can visit, e-mail ( phdcouncil.feb rug.nl ) or phone us if you have comments or questions on anything that concerns your PhD project, or if you want to become a member of this committee too.

Links

• FEB PhD Committee
• GOPHER , Groningen Organization for PhD Education and Recreation
• GRIN , Groningen Graduate Interest Network
• PNN , PhD candidates Network of the Netherlands