University of Helsinki
Please use this blog for the exchange of opinions on student representatives in doctoral programmes from now on. The reason is that valt-jatko@helsinki.fi list is overloaded by emails. Furthermore the list is not representative. Unfortunately we do not have the right to add students to the list without their approval. Therefore the list is not comprehensive even though our administration is doing its best to keep it up-to-date.
The boards have been nominated
The boards for “Social Sciences” and “Political, Societal and Regional Change” doctoral programs have been nominated without a student representative today. They will be completed as soon as we have student candidates for them.
The Board of the Finnish Doctoral Programme in Economics – FDPE (Kansantaloustieteen tohtoriohjelma – KAVA) has a student representative. This means that all the boards can now start their work to open the salaried PhD student positions for application on 1 October 2013.
Students’ representation
There was some confusion about what I wrote about students’ representation in valt-jatko –list. In the case of working groups and boards we normally ask the student organizations (of the discipline or faculty depending on the issue) to provide us the nominee. However our PhD students are not organised on a disciplinary basis. Some are members of the Student Union (HYY), some of the Finnish Union of University Researchers and Teachers (Tieteentekijöiden liitto) and some of Tsemppi (the organization for internationally-minded students and researchers). Many are not organised at all. Therefore the call was initially sent via valt-jatko –list.
How many PhD students do we have?
The number of doctoral students in our faculty is around 650. For more details, Annual report 2012 (in Finnish)
http://www.helsinki.fi/vuosikertomus2012/lukuina.html#target1.
It is difficult to estimate the exact number, because many of those who have been accepted as PhD students have neither registered nor informed us that they are absent.
University elections
This year we will have the administration elections at the university through which all the decision making bodies of the university, including the councils, are installed. Voting is 4.-5. November both for students and staff. Those students who are employed by the university or have a grant and with whom the departments have made a contract (on the use of working space) are part of staff.
By suggestion of some doctoral students, a general meeting for all students willing to participate will be celebrated next October. Students are asked to participate in the poll to choose the date/time. The poll will be open until October 1. Location remains undisclosed until the date/time is decided. To participate on the poll go to:
http://doodle.com/dz555uztyzguy3t3
It will be sad if we allow 5-10 PhD students to determine the representation of 650 PhD students in the board of Doctoral programme. We can allow this if we do not participate in the upcoming meeting, either by attending or by voicing our views via online forum. The most important part of representation is the election; we have the opportunity to be heard and to influence a critical part of the ongoing changes. I urge everyone to participate in the meeting and to give their views via the suggested online forum. Thank you.