Category: info-sv

Together with The Helsinki University Researchers’ and Teachers’ Association (HUART) and the Student union (HYY), HYVÄT has made a joint statement against the decision to raise the fees of language checks on PhD’s.

You can find information on the Language center’s decision in Flamma and you can read our full statement in Finnish here and the English translation below.

The recent decision will make a language check on a PhD of the recommended 250 pages length cost thousands of euros, which would be a little less for an article based thesis, but quite costly also in this case. Even before, with the lower prices of last year the language check was so expensive that many left it undone because they simply could not afford it. It is obvious that even fewer will be able to pay the new, higher prices.

The decision is unfair because it is aimed at young researchers who often work on small grants and under considerable economic insecurity. The decision also creates a situation where researchers are in different position depending on their financial situation.

The number of researchers who write their PhD’s in English is rising because that in many fields is the only realistic language for publications, but also because the university encourages them to it. However, English is a second or third language for most PhD’s, and because of this a professional high quality language check is a vital part of finishing the thesis. A linguistically good thesis is also a merit, both for the individual researcher and the University of Helsinki. The language check should therefore be seen as a central part of the doctoral education. Good academic English enhances the spread of a publication as much as weak language hinders it.

Providing a language check for free would directly contribute to the strategic goals of the university: the development of international high quality research and publications. We hope that the language check will continue to be free of charge for doctoral students, or that it will be supported by the cooperation of the university’s management, the language centre and the doctoral schools and programmes.

This new year begins with a new name as the association says goodbye to Helsingin yliopiston jatko-opiskelijat / Doktorander vid Helsingfors universitet / Association of Doctoral Students at the University of Helsinki, and welcomes the new name that was chosen at the autumn meeting in November 2016:

Helsingin Yliopiston Väitöskirjatutkijat
Doktorander vid Helsingfors Universitet
University of Helsinki PhD Students

The change mainly concerns the Finnish part of the name where the word “jatko-opiskelija” has been replaced with “väitöskirjatutkija”, a PhD researcher. The possibility of changing the name of the association has kept popping up since the founding of the association in 2014 and now the members who were present at the autumn meeting agreed that the time was right to change it. We also adapted the new acronym: HYVÄT.

There was a will to emphasize our role as researchers rather than our role as students for several reasons. First, and most important, research is what we do in practice. In one sense we of course are studying and also do courses as regular students, but our main task is learning how to be researchers by doing actual new scientific research in various fields. Second, the prolonged status of student does not necessarily look beneficial on the CV when we are applying for jobs outside academia after we have finished our dissertations. If we refer to ourselves as researchers it looks like we have been doing work, which we thought is a more accurate description. Third, even the university is doing away with the term “jatko-opiskelija”, although it has decided to use the term “tohtorikoulutettava”, meaning “a person who is being given a doctoral education” instead.

The Swedish term “doktorand” needed no changing because it is perfect as it is, describing the exact phase of workinglife and specialising we are going through when completing our PhD degrees. In the English version the autumn meeting decided to keep the term “PhD student” because it seemed to be the most common term, although options like “PhD candidate/PhD researcher” were discussed too.

 

In addition to the new name, the year also begins with a new action plan!
The main points of it are listed below, stay tuned for more information about Pub Nights and other events that will follow shortly!

Influencing doctoral training at the University

• In 2017 the association will continue to influence decision-­making relating to the doctoral education
• In the autumn of 2017 the Association will organise elections for doctoral student
  representatives for the different steering groups for doctoral schools and programmes. The association will also keep in touch with the doctoral student representatives of doctoral schools and programmes in order to stay updated on the current issues related to doctoral education and to the needs of doctoral students in different parts of the university.
• The association will continue to work towards ensuring that all doctoral students, regardless of their source of funding, have the same conditions for doing research.

Leisure activities

• The association will organise after-­work events every month as well as a couple of larger events, such as a Christmas party and a spring party.

Co-­operation

• The association will continue co-­operation with other organizations that share our interest for the welfare of doctoral students, both in Helsinki and nationwide

Communications

• The existing communication channels, (blog, e-­mail list, social media) will continue to be used to both spread information and actively collect the comments and opinions from members
• The association will work for the goal that future new doctoral students get more practical information when starting their studies at the university