“When I took over the responsibility for third-cycle education as Vice Dean, I got the impression that it was difficult to get doctoral students to take the time to attend faculty-wide seminars and activities. Charlina Lunvald and I then tried to establish one day per semester during which we would compress information and organize meetings across departmental boundaries”, says HJ Holm, who besides his role as Vice Dean is also a professor in Economics.
He is convinced that doctoral students can benefit greatly from exchanges across departments. One thing is that they expand their networks by meeting doctoral students outside their home departments.
“One exciting activity at the most recent Doctoral Student Day was when the doctoral students, in smaller groups of 6–8, told each other about their dissertation projects. The groups were formed in such a way that the students came from different departments but had shared research interests—based on groupings made by AI. It was very interesting to listen to the doctoral students describe their projects in this type of setting”, says professor Holm.
The plan for next autumn, is to invite employers from outside academia who have experience with and an interest in recruiting doctoral graduates, as well as alumni. Last autumn, participants included Novo Nordisk, Tetra Pak, the City of Malmö, and Region Skåne.