Working Group C

1. 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

2. Group C report: title & contents Doctoral 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

3. 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

4. Doctoral Programs Theme: Goals of Group C work • Synthesize background information from Europe and the US • Compile data on types of seminars on transferable skills development offered to PhD candidates in Civil Engineering • Examine attitudes of Civil Engineering faculty and PhD candidates regarding seminars • Develop seminar material and adapt material from existing short-duration seminars, disseminate this material among EUCEET partners • 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!

5. 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

6. Literature Review: Doctoral Education

7. 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?

8. 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?

9. 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)?

10. Skills training: example Cardiff 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

11. Group C looks at transferable skills

12. 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).

13. Table 1. Examples of transferable skills adapted from KU Leuven

14. 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?

15. Some answers 1. research-related 2. academic & technical 3. intellectual 4. leadership 5. relational 6. self-management

16. 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

17. Group C adapts and develops seminar materials

18. 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

19. Please visit! http://euceet.eu/  Workgroups  Group C

20. 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 engineeringPhD students • should make an engineering faculty member with no formal background in Terminology feel comfortable delivering the seminar

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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)

24. Please visit! http://euceet.eu/  Workgroups  Group C

25. Wrapping up Group C work

26. Group C report: title & contents Doctoral 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

27. 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

28. A possible future • Pursue EU funding for the development of transferable seminars tailored to civil engineeringPhD 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)

29. 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?

30. 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”?

31. 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?