Guidelines for planning seminars and mid-term seminars
Both planning and mid-term seminars are part of the department’s research seminar series, to which all PhD students, researchers and teachers are invited. It is particularly important that the members of the board of supervisors and the department’s PhD students are present in the seminars. All participants, and especially the members of the board of supervisors, are encouraged to engage actively with constructive and forward-looking comments.
Planning seminar
The obligatory planning seminars usually take place at the beginning of the doctoral studies’ second year. The seminars give the PhD students the possibility to present the further development that they envisage for their theses for the remaining time of the PhD program. To this end, each PhD student prepares a plan paper that presents the thesis’ overarching structure and disposition. The planning paper should be submitted no later than one week before the date of the seminar.
To solicit constructive comments from discussant and audience the plan paper should be as clear and concrete as possible about the further plans for the PhD work. The paper should carefully introduce the main research problem as well as research questions and / or hypotheses. The same goes for key concepts (both theoretical and empirical ones), underlying assumptions and the literature that will be taken into consideration.
Crucially, the plan paper should also discuss the research design along with relevant methods. Moreover, the paper ought to include a detailed outline of the planned thesis (for a compilation thesis this implies synopses of all, or at least most, of the envisaged essays) along with a timetable for the remaining thesis work. The upper limit for the plan paper is 30 pages, excluding references (12 pt, Times New Roman).
Before the seminar, a senior discussant (holding a doctoral degree or higher) will be appointed. The discussant’s role during the seminar is to point out strengths, challenges and aspects that need further development. The discussant may begin with a very brief summary of the plan paper. In total, the seminar will take 60 minutes, of which half should be dedicated to a dialogue between discussant and PhD candidate. The remaining time should be reserved for questions from the audience.
During the seminar, the supervisors have the task to collate the comments the PhD student receives on their plan paper. Soon after the seminar (preferably within two weeks) the main supervisor calls for a follow-up meeting with the PhD candidate, the supervisors and the discussant in order to further discuss the comments from the seminar.
The follow-up meeting’s purpose is to identify, in a concrete and forward-looking manner, which implications the comments have for the further thesis work. Moreover, the discussant, based on their thorough reading of the plan paper, is given the possibility to further develop and elaborate on some comments. The main supervisor confirms in an e-mail to the director of PhD studies that the follow-up meeting has taken place and indicates whether there are any concerns that may impact the further work on the thesis.
Mid-term seminar
The mid-term seminar takes place when the PhD students are about half way into their doctoral studies. The purpose of the mid-term seminar is, on one hand, to give each PhD student the opportunity to receive suggestions from colleagues and enhance the quality of the thesis project and, on the other hand, to give the department the opportunity to evaluate the progress of the thesis work. The PhD student should submit the mid-term paper no later than one week before the date of the seminar.
During the seminar, the PhD student is expected to present a core part of their thesis, and to position the presented part in the wider context of the thesis work. In case of a monograph-based thesis, the mid-term paper may consist, for example, of one or two substantial chapters along with a table of contents and a draft introduction chapter. For a compilation thesis, the mid-term paper can consist, for example, of at least one of the thesis’ essays along with an overview of all envisaged essays and a first draft of the introductory essay (“kappa”).
Before the seminar, a senior discussant (holding a doctoral degree or higher) and a junior discussant (PhD candidate) will be appointed. At the beginning of the seminar, the two discussants summarize the state of the thesis, followed by their joint comments, which they should coordinate with each other upfront. The seminar takes no longer than 1 hr and 45 minutes (usually 13.15-14.45 PM). About half of this time should be dedicated to the discussants’ summary and the dialogue between discussants and PhD candidate. The remaining time should be reserved for questions from the audience.
During the seminar, the supervisors have the task to collate the comments the PhD student receives on the mid-term paper. Soon after the seminar (preferably within two weeks) the main supervisor calls for a follow-up meeting with the PhD candidate, the supervisors and the discussants in order to further discuss the comments from the seminar. The follow-up meeting’s purpose is to identify, in a concrete and forward-looking manner, which implications the comments have for the further thesis work. The main supervisor confirms in an e-mail to the director of PhD studies that the follow-up meeting has taken place and indicates whether there are any concerns that may impact the further work with the thesis.