Working Group C

Doctoral programs – 3rd cycle – and research in civil engineering faculties

Marina Pantazidou

National Technical University of Athens

EUCEET III General Assembly

Paris, November 20, 2009

Revised terms of reference• Because we have found a lot of background work

already done, eg:– Teaching and Research in Engineering in Europe (TREE), 2007,

Status of Doctoral Studies in Europe: A Survey – European University Association (EUA), 2007, Doctoral

programmes in Europe’s Universities: Achievements and Challenges

– Akay, A., 2008, A Renaissance in Engineering PhD Education, European Journal of Engineering Education, 33:4:403-413

• We have focused on transferable skills development, both research-related and career-oriented– uneven picture throughout European Universities

Outline

• Group goals and activities• Literature review

– Doctoral education trends (EU, USA)– Skills training examples (EU)

• Attitudes on skills training• 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

• Literature review• Survey on skills training within the group• Adaptation of seminar material• Production of seminar material

Workshop in March, 2009, hosted by KU Leuven

Literature Review: Doctoral Education

Trends in the EU

Bologna 1999• Create European Area of Higher Education with

two main cycles: undergraduate - graduateBerlin 2003• Include doctoral level as a 3rd cycle and set goals of

doctoral programs– produce research output– provide research training– promote interdisciplinarity

Trends in the EU (cont’d)

Bergen 2005 • Need for structured doctoral programs

– promote interdisciplinary training and development of transferable skills

• Overregulation of doctoral programs to be avoidedLondon 2007• Improve status and career prospects of doctoral

students– measures include development of transferable skills

Leuven 2009 • Support career development of doctoral students

Administration: trends• Europe

– Many universities have established graduate or doctoral schools with longer or shorter histories

• Aalborg (1993), Lausanne EPFL (2003-2006), Chalmers (2005), KU Leuven (2007), …

– Graduate or doctoral schools involve one or more institutions

• USA– Doctoral education is overseen by the Graduate

Division• Graduate Division shares responsibilities with

Departments but responsibilities vary in relative magnitude across universities

• Graduate Division is often a weak unit

Coursework: trends

• Europe – Few countries still adhere uniformly to the

traditional apprenticeship model for PhD– Most universities have coursework

requirements

• USA– PhD model combining individual supervision

and coursework established since the end of 19th century

Skills training: trends

• Europe – Mostly offered through doctoral schools– Some universities provide opportunities for

off campus training– Quite a few universities provide training on

transferable skills, but fewer require it

• USA– Training in transferable skills is provided as

professional development support, mostly through the university career center

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

Skills categoriesSkills and competences that are necessary to pass successfully through the doctoral studies and for further career https://www.kuleuven.be/personeel/competentieprofiel/index_eng.html

Competence profile of PhD graduates

Academic & Technical Skills

Intellectual skills Leadership

& change management Relational skills Self management skills

Research setup Conceptual thinking Leadership & motivation skills

Interpersonal skills / communication

Autonomy

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

Project and budget management

Interdisciplinary thinking/broadmindedness

Flexibility Presentations/speaking in public

Planning, organizing and prioritizing

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

Arenberg Doctoral School, KU Leuven

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?

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

Skills training: attitudes• EUA (2009) studied opinions of the industry

regarding development of transferable skills– communication skills valued very highly

• communication to non-specialists regarded as a business-oriented activity

– for large R&D companies not a requirement

– very important for SMEs

• Some faculty members are skeptical about overloading PhD candidates with seminars

• Representatives of KU Leuven doctoral students find training courses very useful, prefer them to be optional

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, 7 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

How should we call it?• Choice between common engineering terms (in

alphabetical order):– coefficient– constant– factor– index– parameter

• How “similar” are they? Is one of them a super-category (superordinate concept) where all/some others belong?

• Perhaps common issue in subject fields with a number of quantities are defined experimentally

open assignment for seminar participants

Concept system example: structures (bridges)

bridge

(use) (material) (load transfer mechanism)

pedestrian

bridge

road bridge

railway bridge

timber bridge

rope bridge

steel bridge

concrete bridge

conventional bridge (horizontal main girders)

suspension bridge

arch bridge

cable bridge

cable stayed bridge

overpass

Note: Generic relations (genus- species relations) are shown with tree- like structures

truss bridge

underbridge overbridge

masonry bridge

steel- concrete composite bridge

fiber - reinforced polymer bridge

Resources (2)• Technical terms

– Glossaries prepared by technical committees• ISO technical committees

– http://www.iso.org/iso/standards_development/technical_committees/list_of_iso_technical_committees.htm

• Committees under the national standards body– http://www.elot.gr/committee.htm (for Greece)

– Multilingual terminology databases• IATE (InterActive Terminology for Europe)

– iate.europa.eu

• Termium Plus (English and French)– http://btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tpv2alpha/alpha-eng.html?lang=eng

• Subject specific, e.g. environment– www.eionet.europa.eu/gemet/

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

Conclusions• Doctoral studies affected by the type of

administration of doctoral programs– administration at the department level may

be limiting

• Skills training is perhaps better if optional, targeting specific needs, concentrated

• Uniformly valued skill: communication to non-specialists

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)