Doctoral School Organized Workshops for Supervisors and Doctoral Students

During the week of April 28 to May 2, two interesting workshops took place at the University of South Bohemia, led by Dr. Claudius van de Vijver, head of the PhD program at The Graduate School for Production Ecology & Resource Conservation (PE&RC) at Wageningen University, and his colleague Barend van den Broek.

PE&RC is a joint institution of leading Dutch universities and is considered one of the most prestigious European doctoral schools.

The first workshop, intended for PhD supervisors, was attended by 19 academics from all faculties. In addition to the workshop content itself, participants also benefited from meeting colleagues from other faculties and discussing how doctoral studies are organized at the various faculties, as well as identifying both challenges and opportunities for improvement.

The second course was intended for doctoral students and focused on basic skills needed for effective organization of a doctoral candidate’s work. Again, students from all faculties were invited, so interfaculty sharing was beneficial here as well.

At the end of the workshops, both groups formed peer-coaching groups, enabling joint consultations on the challenges their members face and seeking ways and support to achieve the goals that individual supervisors and students set in their work.

Another similar course for supervisors will take place in October, again led by colleagues from Wageningen.