Doctoral Training and Development

Training mainly by research, but not only for research

Structure

Training and development in the Doctoral School Biomedical Sciences consists of three elements:

• Truncus communis;
• Thematic training in a doctoral school programme;
• Skills training and development.

Depending on their affiliation with a doctoral school programme PhD students will follow a different trajectory as outlined in the table.

1. Truncus Communis

These activities are obligatory for all PhD students in the Doctoral School Biomedical Sciences. The truncus communis defines specific milestones every PhD student has to deliver in order to graduate. These elements are an important part of quality control of the doctoral programmes.

During the doctoral training every PhD student has to:

• Write at least one scientific article (this is expected to be a first author publication that has been published or is accepted for publication; if this is not the case at the end of your doctoral training please contact the doctoral school office).
• Deliver one literature seminar. It is strongly recommended to give the literature seminar during the first year of the PhD. The subject can be about the research topic of your PhD or the topic can be related to and/or relevant for your research.
• Attend at least one international meeting with active participation (oral presentation or a poster presentation).
• Attend at least 15 seminars or lectures by guest speakers (= internationally renowned speakers from outside KU Leuven).
• Provide yearly progress reports: (check the practical manual for details)
  • Year 1: provisional doctoral plan (evaluated by the doctoral committee).
  • Year 2: research seminar (evaluated by the doctoral supervisory committee)
  • Year 3: final doctoral plan (evaluated by the enlarged doctoral supervisory committee).

Additionally all PhD students are obliged to keep a record of all steps in their doctoral training and their acquired skills and expertise in the E-Portfolio. This is a notebook accessible via Toledo (http://toledo.kuleuven.be/), the electronic learning environment of the Association K.U.Leuven. We recommend to share the portfolio with your (co-)promoter from the beginning of your doctoral training, that way s/he can keep track of your progress. After graduation this notebook can be used as a personal portfolio. For more info on how to use the E-Portfolio, please read the manual.

PhD students are encouraged to finalize the doctoral training and research within a period of four years.

Part-time Doctoral Researchers are not bound to the strict time schedule of these progress reports. Deviation from the timetable should be motivated in the Provisional Doctoral plan. 

2. Thematic Training in a Doctoral School Programme

Thematic training activities comprise advanced courses, invited lectures, journal clubs and doctoral seminars. The main focus is on the development of academic, intellectual and technical skills.

For more information see the programmes web page.

3. Skills Training and Development

Generic and transferable skills exceed the specific topic of the doctorate and are relevant not only for the research workplace, but also for other places of employment. Examples of such skills are:

• Intellectual skills: conceptual thinking, analytic thinking, synthetic capacity, information handling, ...
• Academic and technical skills: generate and test hypotheses, acquire technical expertise and research methodology, respect ethical standards, ...
• Personal and professional management skills: project planning, organization of independent working, coping with stress, communication and networking...

The learning process for these skills can be implicit. For example, by writing out a research hypothesis and planning the experiments you will acquire several intellectual and self management skills. On the other hand, you can attend specific courses, seminars or workshops for more formal training.

All skills are optional, with exception of the module 'Good Scientific Conduct' which includes obligatory courses. 

Besides our skills training, we also offer career opportunities for young researchers. This is in cooperation with YouReCa. YouReCa has been established with funding from the Flemish Government. In particular, Minister Lieten provided a budget to the Flemish universities for activities related to the support of young researchers.

The goal of YouReCa is to improve and widen the career perspectives of KU Leuven’s young researchers. To this end, YouReCa will organize and coordinate a broad spectrum of activities that are related to:

• training and education,
• career development and the improvement of career prospects,
• strengthening the international orientation of researchers’ careers.

 YouReCa activities are organized at three levels: university wide, within the three Doctoral Schools, and initiatives by young researchers.

More information about YouReCa can be found on their website.