VLAG FLASH - August 2006, Edition 4
On the 10th of May representatives from the PhD Council had a meeting with the International Advisory Board (IAB). The topics that were discussed during this meeting were among other things the variation and quality of the educational program and the Training & Supervision Plan (TSP). Three topics that came out of this meeting that need additional attention are:
1. Curriculum and Training & Supervision Plan (TSP)
One commonly heard remark from PhD students is the lack of feedback on their TSP. This is partly the result from the vagueness there is about the TSP. VLAG, but also the Wageningen PhD Council will work on a better document explaining all the aspects of the TSP. This will clarify the role of the graduate school, the supervisors and the PhD student in the Training & Supervision Plan and will result in clarity for the PhD student what I can expect from the TSP and from whom feedback on the TSP can be expected.
Other aspects to improve the TSP are:
2. Do we need to improve the 'VLAG feeling'?
It was noticed that with PhD students in first instance the sense of belonging goes to the research group followed by the university and/or research institute. The visibility of VLAG should therefore be increased and the 'VLAG brand' should be further developed. One important aspect in this is improving the quality of educational activities and monitoring the quality of the TSP which will consequently lead to a renowned and valued VLAG certificate.
3. Emergence of Research Masters and Graduate Schools "New Style"
There are a number of concerns regarding the emergence of Research Masters and the "New Style" Graduate schools. The feeling is that the introduction of Research Masters at Dutch universities might have negative consequences for well functioning (inter)nationally oriented disciplinary graduate schools such as VLAG. Also the tendency to set up new, university based, graduate schools can turn contra-productive as it may discourage collaboration among universities. VLAG will follow these developments and will discuss the course of action in order to preserve VLAG's raison d'être as a national graduate school. The Wageningen PhD Council and Promovendi Netwerk Nederland (PNN) are also following these developments.
If you would like to contribute to these issues, please contact the VLAG PhD Council representative of your research group or contact Jeroen Knol (Jeroen.Knol@wur.nl)