The Ministry of Education and Training has asked universities, institutes and colleges to carry out works related to enrolment for doctoral training in foreign countries in 2013, according to Project 911. Accordingly, 1,100 candidates will be enrolled.
The ministries asked universities, institutes and colleges to establish councils to consider candidates who meet the regulations of the ministry, and suit the planning and lecturer demand of the establishments, in order to finalize a list of candidates by February 15th 2013.
The ministry also announced that lecturers who enrolled under Project 322 and have not gone to study, now planning to register with Project 911 and meeting adequate regulations, can complete the necessary procedures to attend training courses under Project 911. Read more...

Fast die Hälfte aller Doktoranden hat schon mal daran gedacht, die Dissertation abzubrechen. Die hohe Arbeitsbelastung und schlechte Betreuung machen ihnen zu schaffen.
Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiter in Forschungsprojekten oder an Lehrstühlen, die gleichzeitig an ihrer Doktorarbeit sitzen, denken häufig ans Aufgeben. 47 Prozent der Projektmitarbeiter, die bis zu drei Jahren an ihrer Dissertation arbeiten, haben schon einmal über einen Abbruch der Arbeit nachgedacht. Ähnlich hoch ist die Zahl mit 44 Prozent bei Mitarbeitern an einem Lehrstuhl. Bei denjenigen, die seit über drei Jahren promovieren, sind es sogar 49 Prozent (in Projekten) beziehungsweise 55 Prozent (an Lehrstühlen). Das geht aus einer jetzt veröffentlichten Studie des HIS-Instituts für Hochschulforschung in Hannover über Promotionsbedingungen in Deutschland hervor. Für die vom Bundesforschungsministerium (BMBF) geförderte Studie wurden 2850 Doktoranden in verschieden strukturierten Promotionsverhältnissen befragt. Mehr...

By Melonie Fullick. While for most people the holidays are a time to relax, in academic life the winter break is used by many professors and graduate students as “catch-up time.” For those of us in PhD programs, this often means focusing on overdue course papers or on dissertation work, which – ironically – often drops to the bottom of the list when we’re juggling so many different commitments during the term.
As a doctoral candidate currently working on my dissertation, I’ve seen many cases where students “fell behind” or left their programs for various reasons. I also have an interest in this issue because the topic of my research is the university itself, and how it’s governed. The PhD model, in Canada and elsewhere, has traditionally been an “elite” one. It’s based on the idea that very few people will go to graduate school, and that those who do will have plenty of preparation and support for it.
Throughout my time in graduate school, I’ve found that this model is built on outdated assumptions about the context of graduate education and the kind of person who pursues a PhD. For example, there’s the idea that students will have available four to six years during which little or nothing else will be going on in their lives, and that they’ll be free from commitments that take time away from academic work. As more people enter PhD programs, more of them are likely to come from different contexts that don’t fit with this model, yet policies often treat students’ everyday circumstances as “exceptions.” Read more...

By Elizabeth Gibney. Third of sector expects staff to hold qualification, FoI request shows. Elizabeth Gibney reports.
UK universities are increasingly pushing for academic staff to hold PhDs, an investigation has revealed.
Almost 30 per cent of the 113 universities that responded to a Freedom of Information request by Times Higher Education say they have aims or commitments to increase their proportion of academics with doctorates, whether by hiring new staff or by providing training for existing employees.
Of those, a dozen have specific targets. Cardiff Metropolitan University aims to raise its level to 50 per cent of academic staff by 2017-18, Anglia Ruskin University has a target of 60 per cent by 2014-15 and City University London is aiming for 68 per cent by 2016-17.
The percentage of staff with PhDs at UK universities has already risen significantly over the past decade, the data show. Read more...

Accueillir un jeune diplômé
Espace d’échanges virtuel, le site Internet "Stages en Lorraine" met en relation les étudiants des établissements d´enseignement supérieur lorrains avec des entreprises européennes et régionales. Les premiers peuvent y déposer en ligne une demande de stage, un CV et une lettre de motivation, les secondes, y publier leurs offres. Stages en Lorraine propose également une rubrique pratique: conventions de stage, couverture sociale du stagiaire, formalités…
Vous pouvez également consulter Infostages.com, bourse nationale de stage proposée par l’Agence Nationale Pour l’Emploi (ANPE) et le Centre d'Information et de Documentation Jeunesse (CIDJ). Permettant de développer les compétences scientifiques et techniques des PME, les différentes "Initiatives Formation emploi" de l’ADEME soutiennent les projets de recherche, de développement ou de valorisation proposés par des étudiants.
Souple et économique, le Volontariat International en Entreprise (VIE), permet de confier une mission professionnelle à l'étranger de 6 à 24 mois à un jeune diplômé (moins de 28 ans). La gestion du VIE est assurée par l’Agence Ubifrance.
Des chercheurs en entreprise
Accueillir un doctorant ou un post-doctorant en entreprise? Un accord gagnant - gagnant: il facilite l’intégration professionnelle d’un jeune chercheur tout en développant l'innovation au sein de la structure d'accueil. Plusieurs dispositifs publics encouragent ces collaborations entre le monde économique et celui de la recherche.
Les conventions CIFRE (Conventions Industrielles de Formation par la Recherche) s’adressent aux entreprises qui s'engagent à confier un projet de recherche à un jeune diplômé (BAC +5). Ces conventions sont gérées par l'Association Nationale de la Recherche Technique (ANRT).
La Bourse de Docteur Ingénieur Entreprise (BDIE) est cofinancée par le CNRS et l’entreprise. Cette bourse soutient la réalisation d'une thèse de doctorat menée dans un laboratoire du CNRS dans le cadre d’un contrat de collaboration entre l’établissement public de recherche et le partenaire industriel.
L'ADEME, Agence de l'Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l'Energie, soutient chaque année la préparation de 80 thèses de doctorat. L'Agence porte une attention toute particulière aux projets cofinancés par des entreprises et intéressants à ses grands domaines d’intervention (ressources naturelles, changement climatique, déchets…).

We've touched on this issue in the past, but it's worth revisiting in light of this e-mail from a job seeker:
I'm on the job market (not for the first time) and I worry I'll be perceived as "stale". From what I hear, lots of philosophers think it looks very bad that, after a few years out of a Ph.D. program, there's no tenure-track position on my CV.  I have a few questions that I hope you or your readers might be able to answer:
i. Do people have a sense of how much "staleness" continues to matter even for candidates who are in other ways attractive -- some good publications, lots of teaching experience? 
ii. If you continue to publish (or publish decent stuff) does that make you any less "stale", or are you still considered obsolete or defective simply in virtue of your defence date? 
iii. Is "staleness" less of an issue these days than in the recent past, in light of the terrible job markets and overall economy since 2008? 
iv. Do people have any tips about what a "stale" candidate might do to compensate?
The "staleness" issue, as I think about it, is this: the more years since the PhD that the candidate does not have a tenure-track job, the more likely hiring departments are to draw negative inferences from that fact. Prior to the economic collapse, my sense was that staleness worries kicked in after 4 or 5 years; I would hope that hiring departments are allowing that strong candidates may take considerably longer these days to find a tenure-track position.  As to the other questions, I'll make just one comment now, and open comments for thoughts for readers; my one comment is that the longer out from the PhD you are, the better it would be if one or more of your letter writers might speak to that and make clear why this does not support any negative inferences about your candidacy. Signed comments preferred, but job seekers may post anonymously.

By Elizabeth Redden. The first class of nine students graduated Saturday from the University of Queensland School of Medicine's unique partnership program with Ochsner Health System, in New Orleans. In total, 171 students have enrolled in the transnational program since it launched in January 2009 with the stated goal of producing more physicians for the United States. Students must hold U.S. citizenship or permanent residence in order to enroll in the Queensland-Ochsner program, which entails two years of basic sciences in Brisbane, two years of clinical training in New Orleans, and culminates in the awarding of a bachelor of medicine, bachelor of surgery, the Australian equivalent to an M.D. Read more...

Colloque « L'université et le monde professionnel - quels enjeux pour le doctorat ? »
Approches sociohistoriques, socioculturelles et socioprofessionnelles, 24-25 Janvier 2013 - CNAM.
A l’initiative du groupe de travail appartenant au programme collaboratif 1 du Labex Hastec deux journées de colloque sont organisées dont l’enjeu est de questionner la thèse de doctorat. En effet, à l’heure où les établissements d’enseignement supérieur professionnels frappent à la porte des universités pour pouvoir offrir à leurs étudiants la possibilité de passer une thèse de doctorat propre au champ professionnel concerné (doctorat en exercice, doctorat professionnel, doctorat en VAE, doctorat en VAP, etc.), il devient urgent d’en dégager les enjeux et d’en comprendre les impacts éventuels.
Ces deux journées ont pour objectifs de clarifier ces demandes, d’en dégager les effets en rapport avec des perspectives historiques, culturelles et professionnelles sur un plan national et international. Quelle est la nature des résistances? Quelles sont les compétences épistémologiques minimum exigées d’une véritable thèse de doctorat quel que soit son domaine? Telles sont les questions abordées lors de ces deux journées.
Des historiens, des épistémologues évoqueront les lignes de force de la thèse de doctorat.
Des universitaires, responsables d’écoles doctorales évoqueront les évolutions récentes du doctorat et la place de la thèse.
Des universitaires étrangers feront part des expériences de leur pays.
Enfin, des témoins, d’une part, de mise en place d’une articulation thèse-monde professionnel, et d’autre part, de travaux de capitalisation et d’analyse de thèses déjà soutenues par les professionnels, permettront de comprendre s’il existe une spécificité ou non d’un doctorat fortement lié à un champ de pratiques professionnelles.

Sixth EUA-CDE Workshop Interdisciplinary Doctoral Programmes. Hosted by Politecnico di Torino, Turin, Italy 17-18 January 2013. Interdisciplinary programmes are attractive for doctoral education. Interdisciplinary training expands the mindsets of doctoral candidates beyond the traditions of their own discipline and makes them capable of valuing different methods and perspectives of research. Many of the problems that are connected to the ‘grand challenges’ can only be approached by using different disciplines. However, interdisciplinary research needs good preparation and support, and there are obstacles to the implementation of interdisciplinary programmes that need to be discussed: cultural barriers need to be broken down and a common language needs to be created.
The 6th EUA-CDE Thematic Workshop aims to facilitate a discussion of these issues. What is the goal of interdisciplinary training? Institutions might aim to have more open-minded doctoral candidates – they might also see opportunities to develop as institutions and attract external funding. Doctoral candidates might find that an interdisciplinary profile gives them better opportunities on the labour market. Interdisciplinary training can be seen as creating new approaches to expand the bounds of human knowledge. At the same time, interdisciplinary approaches are often attractive to applied research that aims to solve problems by using many disciplines. There are serious challenges to successful interdisciplinary doctoral education, how to organise it and how to give it merit in a research world that still values specialisation within single disciplines.
Through common plenary discussions and presentation of best practices, the workshop will try to obtain answers and recommendations on how to develop and implement interdisciplinary programmes.

The initiative has been executed with the valuable contribution of 15 African universities