Working Group C
Doctoral Education & Skills Training
in Civil Engineering faculties
Marina Pantazidou
National Technical University of Athens
EUCEET III General Assembly
Paris, November 19, 2009
Group C report: title & contentsDoctoral Education & Skills Training
in Civil Engineering faculties• Introduction• Doctoral Education Trends
– In Europe, in the USA
• Skills training– Definitions, examples (Cardiff, KU Leuven, others)
• Attitudes towards skill training– Questionnaire & answers
• Seminar material– Seminar material adapted (Scientific integrity), Seminar material
developed (Terminology)
• Conclusions• References
Presentation outline
• Group goals and activities• Literature review
– Doctoral education trends (EU)
• Attitudes questionnaire• Adaptation and development of seminar
material• Wrapping up group work
– Final report, dissemination activities, the future
Doctoral Programs Theme: Goals of Group C work
1. Synthesize background information from Europe and the US
2. Compile data on types of seminars on transferable skills development offered to PhD candidates in Civil Engineering
3. Examine attitudes of Civil Engineering faculty and PhD candidates regarding seminars
4. Develop seminar material and adapt material from existing short-duration seminars, disseminate this material among EUCEET partners
5. Identify opportunities for future international collaborations for the development and dissemination of material for seminars developed specifically for Civil Engineering PhD candidates
Nov. ’09 Progress: Goals 1-4 achieved. Goal 5: Ongoing!
Group C activities
• Questionnaire on skills training circulated within the group
• Group meeting on March 27, 2009, hosted by KU Leuven
• Website– includes traces of group work (presentations, minutes,
questionnaire) and work products
• Literature review• Production, review & adaptation of seminar
material• Final report
Literature Review: Doctoral Education
Administration: trends• Europe
– Many universities have established graduate or doctoral schools with longer or shorter histories
• eg, Aalborg (1993), Lausanne EPFL (2003-2006), Chalmers (2005), KU Leuven (2007), …
– Graduate or doctoral schools involve one or more institutions
• eg Doctorate School of Geotechnical Engineering (all universities in the Campania region)
• Questions for the group– Have we missed a doctoral school with some
important innovation?– Have we missed a doctoral school with experience of
many years?
Coursework: trends
• Europe – Few countries still adhere uniformly to the
traditional apprenticeship model for PhD– Most universities have coursework
requirements
• Question– Can we say that all the institutions of Group
C members require coursework?
Skills training: trends
• Europe – Mostly offered through doctoral schools– Some universities provide opportunities for
off campus training (eg Imperial College)– Quite a few universities provide training on
transferable skills, but fewer require it
• Question for the group– Can we say that where skills training is
required, it is required by law (and not simply by university regulation)?
Skills training: exampleCardiff University• Research Students’ Skills Development Program
– joint effort of 4 research and graduate schools– http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/gradc/training/
skillsdevprogramme/• Over 200 courses in areas such as:• Research skills & techniques (eg statistics)• Research Ethics• Research Management (eg information resources for
research)• Communication (eg public engagement)
– all courses described in terms of objectives & contents
Group C looks attransferable skills
Transferable skills: definition
For the purposes of doctoral education, we give the following definition for transferable skills:
abilities enhanced or obtained during postgraduate research that are useful to many different kinds of professional roles
Note 1: Such skills are sometimes referred to as ‘horizontal’.Note 2: Professional roles refer to either academic or non-academic careers.Note 3: For examples of transferable skills see Table 1 (next slide).
Competence profile of PhD graduates I. Skills mostly useful for an engineering career II. Skills useful for any career
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
Research-related skills
Academic & technical skills
Intellectual skills Leadership & change management
Relational skills Self management skills
PhD-topic specific Research setup Conceptual thinking Leadership & motivation skills
Interpersonal skills / communication
Autonomy
e.g., Constitutive modeling, Continuum mechanics
Methodological skills and statistical analysis
Analytical thinking Strategic thinking Teamwork / working together
Goal-directedness /Result-driven approach
Data interpretation skills
Synthetic skills Creativity and innovation
Diplomatic skills Perseverance
Reporting skills Critical thinking
Taking initiative & entrepreneurship
Networking Coping with stress
General engineering research tools
Project and budget management
Interdisciplinary thinking/broadminded- ness
Flexibility Presentations/speaking in public
Planning, organizing and prioritizing
e.g., Numerical analysis, Fundamental data structures in computer science
Fund raising Learning capability and interest
International focus Confidence and assertiveness
Acting and thinking pragmatically
Pedagogical skills
Problem-solving skills
Language skills
Knowledge of the research field
Table 1. Examples of transferable skills
adapted from KU Leuven
Questionnaire• From the categories of skills & related seminars below
1. Research-related skills (e.g., numerical modelling, computing)
2. Academic & technical skills (e.g., research setup, reporting skills, pedagogical skills)
3. Intellectual skills (e.g., interdisciplinary thinking)
4. Leadership& change management (e.g., entrepreneurship)
5. Relational skills (e.g., communication, team working)
6. Self management skills (e.g., time management)
• which categories of seminars
i) are required by your institution? ii) do you think PhD should take? iii) can Group C develop?
Some answers
University University course requirements
Personal opinion on course requirements
Group C
focus
Yes-No what kind? Yes-No what kind?
Piza Yes 1 Yes 1 1
Prague Yes 1,2,4,5 No,
except foreign
languages
Bratislava Yes 1 Yes 1 2,3
Helsinki Yes 1,2,4,5 Yes
1,2 (mainly)
3,4,5 (MSc as well)
1,2,4,5
Dublin Yes 1,2,3 Yes 1,2,3,6 2,5,6
Ostrava Yes 1,2,5,6 Yes 1,2,5,6 2,4,5,6
Thessaloniki 1 Yes 1,2 (3,4) Yes 1,2,3,4 2,3,4,5,6
2 Yes 1,2 (5,6) Yes 1,2 (5,6) 2,6
Athens Yes 1 Yes 1,2
(mainly)
5 2,5
Cardiff Yes 1,2,6 (mainly)
3,4,5 (some) Yes
1,2 (mainly)
3,6 (some)
Heriot-Watt Yes 1,2 Yes 1 (mainly) -
1. research-related2. academic & technical3. intellectual4. leadership5. relational6. self-management
Summary of answers
• Most useful categories: (1) Research-related skills
(2) Academic & technical skills (eg research setup, reporting skills, pedagogical skills)
• Most appropriate category for EUCEET collaboration: (2) Academic & technical skills
Group C adapts and develops seminar materials
Adaptation of seminar material• Seminar on Scientific Integrity
– developed by the Commission on Scientific Integrity (CSI) of KU Leuven
• Seminar scope– the research trainee should acquire knowledge of the ‘often
unconscious’ consensus among the scientists of a given discipline on scientific integrity
• Seminar goal– to raise awareness of the importance of integrity for a
professional attitude in research
• Seminar contents– Code of conduct , Ethical Justification, Legal Aspects,
Introduction on CSI
Please visit!
http://euceet.eu/
Workgroups
Group C
Development of seminar material
• Seminar on Terminology Resources and principles
• Collaboration with President of the Hellenic Society for Terminology
• Specifications: seminar material should – be designed for specific learning outcomes– be tailored to civil engineering PhD students– should make an engineering faculty member with
no formal background in Terminology feel comfortable delivering the seminar
Seminar objectives
• At the end of the seminar, participants– know of national standardization body &
source of standards– can locate terminology standards and
glossaries in their subject area– can use web-based multilingual term resources– are familiar with good practices in definition-
giving and term-rendering– are able to evaluate technical terms on the
basis of terminology principles
Seminar format & content• One 2-hour presentation (day 1)
– The three players of communication: concept, definition, term
– Terminology needs in research• an unknown term• how should we call it?• discovery of a new concept
– Concepts, concept relations, concept systems
– 4 rules for a good definition, 6 principles for a good term
– Evaluation of terms from technical texts
– Resources
– Assignment: evaluation of terms (due day 15)
• One 1-hour discussion (day 22)– Discussion of assignments
Terminology seminar material
• PowerPoint presentation in English and Greek– accompanied by a text with comments on
each slide
• Additional resources for the seminar instructor
• List of sources for suitable texts for term analysis (eg EU regulations, Eurocodes)
Please visit!
http://euceet.eu/
Workgroups
Group C
Wrapping up Group C work
Group C report: title & contentsDoctoral Education & Skills Training
in Civil Engineering faculties• Introduction• Doctoral Education Trends
– In Europe, in the USA
• Skills training– Definitions, examples (Cardiff, KU Leuven, others)
• Attitudes towards skill training– Questionnaire & answers
• Seminar material– Seminar material adapted (Scientific integrity), Seminar material
developed (Terminology)
• Conclusions• References
Dissemination
• Seminar presented in Conference on Terminology– will get reviewed by the President of the
European Association for Terminology
• Both seminars need to be taught in 1-2 EUCEET institutions and seminar material to be modified accordingly
A possible future• Pursue EU funding for the development of
transferable seminars tailored to civil engineering PhD candidates
• Collaborative effort between civil engineering faculty and domain experts
• Material developed for seminar on terminology can be used as pilot
• Suggested topics: research ethics, communication to the public, …(combination of interests and available expertise)
Questions & Answers (1)• Administration
– have we missed a doctoral school with some important innovation?
– have we missed a doctoral school with experience of many years?
– how is the collaboration between doctoral schools and departments?
• Coursework– can we say that all the institutions of Group
C members require coursework?
Questions & Answers (2)• Skills training
– have we missed any impressive skills training program like Cardiff’s?
– in the UK, is skills training required by law?– can we say that where skills training is
required, it is required by law (and not simply by university regulation)?
• Skills naming– would you prefer it if PhD students got
training in “research skills” instead of “transferable skills”?
Questions & Answers (3)• Seminar materials (at Group C site:
Scientific Integrity, Terminology)– could you offer comments?– could you offer a review?– could you adopt them in your university?
• Seminar materials (others)– do you have one seminar to recommend as
“model”?– could you identify opportunities for sharing
seminar material?
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