To facilitate for the public posting on the notice board, the doctoral thesis is first posted onto a birch tree stump.
Photo: Ulrika Bergfors
With the objective to secure the quality of doctoral education at Umeå University, the doctoral student survey has been completed annually since 2011. The survey consists of a number of questions and claims within areas such as social background, scientific environment, work environment, educational content, knowledge provided by the education and future job roles.
The result of the 2017 survey shows that a vast majority, 86 per cent, agreed with the claim that they would recommend a research education at Umeå University to others. Nearly 75 per cent were positive about their education, and nearly the same percentage would still choose an education at Umeå University if they had to make the choice again.
Regarding work environment, most respondents, 64 per cent, thought the introduction at the department worked well, and 70 per cent found the work and study environment good during their education. A majority, 69 per cent, also agreed that the scientific environment is creative and inspiring, which is a slightly higher proportion in comparison to 2016. Most doctoral students also regarded the quality of the courses as high, and that follow up of the individual study plan worked well. The doctoral students were also pleased with supervision and the frequency of supervision.
The general description of the education as a stressful time in life is also confirmed by the survey results. 23 per cent have experienced stress with negative impacts on their health, and the proportion of doctoral students who have been absent from their studies due to ill health for more than 14 days is also higher. Two important first measures to come to terms with this problem is to improve our information to doctoral students about what help is available through the occupational health care services and to discuss the situation further at upcoming faculty dialogue meetings.
The survey for 2017 had 90 respondents. This equals a response rate of 54 per cent, which is an all-time low since the survey was introduced in 2011. To improve the response rate, the survey has now been revised and the survey will in future be distributed before, rather that after the public defence of the thesis. The revised version of the doctoral student survey is applied from 1 January 2018.
More reading
Doctoral student survey at Umeå University
(Aurora page in Swedish. Here you can find a link to the report in Swedish)
Revised doctoral student survey (news item in Swedish)
For more information, please contact
Ester Roos-Engstrand
the Planning Office