how to design phd project

How to develop an awesome PhD timeline step-by-step

A successful PhD journey begins with a solid plan that includes a PhD timeline . A thought-through and well-designed PhD timeline requires some time but can be accomplished in a few simple steps.

Why a clear PhD research timeline matters

Step 1: decide what to include in your phd timeline, step 2: discuss your provisional phd timeline with your supervisor/s, step 3: design your phd timeline, step 4: regularly update your phd timeline.

Doing a PhD means committing to a challenging project that spans several years. Therefore, it is no surprise that doing a PhD can feel quite overwhelming. How do you even begin to tackle such a huge project?

A PhD timeline breaks down the daunting task of doing a PhD into an actionable plan with tasks and milestones along the way.

Even if not everything will go as planned (which is normal and no problem!), a PhD timeline can give PhD students peace of mind. A good plan, worked out in a PhD timeline, helps them to structure their time, communicate their goals and work toward specific targets.

Some PhD students are required to create a PhD timeline as part of their programme. Yet, even if PhD students are not required to do so, it is highly recommended to create a PhD timeline!

PhD timelines should be as diverse as PhD research projects: What you decide to include in your timeline should fit to your situation, goals and your programmes’ requirements.

Common elements included in a PhD timeline are the following:

• Data collection : How, when and where are you collecting your research data?
• Fieldwork : Is your data collection spread out or are you spending several weeks doing fieldwork? If so, when is this scheduled and how can you avoid overlaps with other requirements, such as coursework?
• Experiments : Are you running experiments for your PhD research? If so, when? And how long do you estimate this will take you?
• Data analysis : Once you have your data, be it quantitative or qualitative data, when and how do you analyse it? How much time do you block for this task?
• Writing plan : When are you writing down your results? How can you break down writing into different parts, for instance, writing goals per chapter or article?
• Publications : Publication requirements differ from PhD programme to programme. Even if you write your PhD as a monograph (instead of a selection of articles) , you should try to publish something during your PhD. When would you have an opportunity to do so, and how much time does it require?
• Conferences : Every PhD student should present at a conference during their PhD trajectory. Which conferences are you interested in? When do they take place, and when would you have findings to share at a conference?
• Coursework : What are your PhD programme’s coursework requirements? What courses are you interested in, and when are they offered?
• Other activities : Are there any other activities that are crucial for your PhD project? Think, for instance, about an extensive dissemination campaign, collaboration with external partners, internships, online activities etcetera.

Make a draft plan, including dates and times. Then move to Step 2: Discussing it with your supervisor/s!

Proactively creating your PhD timeline is a good step as a PhD student. However, you should share your thoughts and ideas with your PhD supervisor/s and get their input.

If possible, set up a meeting with your supervisor/s that is entirely dedicated to your PhD timeline. During this meeting, you can share what you created so far.

Then, you should discuss the following questions:

• Is there anything missing in the PhD timeline?
• Is the PhD timeline realistic?
• Should anything be removed from the PhD timeline to prioritise other tasks?
• Does the PhD timeline meet all the formal requirements to graduate within the designated amount of time?
• Is there institutional support and sufficient financial resources for activities such as fieldwork, conference attendance, etcetera?

Make sure to take notes during the meeting, as you will need the answers to these questions to edit your provisional PhD timeline.

Not only will this discussion help you to finalise your PhD timeline. It will also help you to get clarity on your supervisor/s’ expectations!

You may also like: Planning your PhD research: A 3-year PhD timeline example

Following the input of your supervisor/s, your PhD timeline will reach a more final stage. Now it is time to think about designing your PhD timeline:

A well-designed PhD timeline is not just pretty for the eyes, but it makes it much easier to have a good overview of all plans and milestones ahead.

Yet, it would be wrong to argue that there is a one-size-fits all solution to designing a perfect PhD timeline.

Maybe you are a very visual person and would prefer your timeline to illustrate a broad overview of the upcoming years. Maybe you are encouraged by checking things off your to-do list. In that case, a more detailed PhD timeline with many different tasks and milestones may be more suitable for you.

A common way to design PhD timelines is via Gantt charts. If you want to learn more about Gantt charts for your PhD timeline, check out my post on how to design Gantt charts in Microsoft Excel, Power Point and Word.

A PhD timeline is there to keep you on track and to showcase the milestones that you reached in your journey so far. However, while it is good to have a solid plan, the future is impossible to predict.

Your PhD timeline should be a living document or chart. Update it regularly!

For instance, a conference may be cancelled. You may have a period of sick leave. An experiment may not work out as planned. Or writing a paper takes longer than expected.

Successful PhD students remain flexible and don’t panic as soon as something does not work out as planned.

So, use your PhD timeline to regularly reflect on your progress and your current situation. Update your PhD timeline when needed, to prioritise tasks and set more concrete and achievable goals for the upcoming months.

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PhD Dissertation Defense Slides Design: Start

• Tips for designing the slides
• Presentation checklist
• Example slides
• Additional Resources

Purpose of the Guide

This guide was created to help ph.d. students in engineering fields to design dissertation defense presentations. the guide provides 1) tips on how to effectively communicate research, and 2) full presentation examples from ph.d. graduates. the tips on designing effective slides are not restricted to dissertation defense presentations; they can be used in designing other types of presentations such as conference talks, qualification and proposal exams, and technical seminars., the tips and examples are used to help students to design effective presentation. the technical contents in all examples are subject to copyright, please do not replicate. , if you need help in designing your presentation, please contact julie chen ([email protected]) for individual consultation. .

• Example Slides Repository
• Defense slides examples Link to examples dissertation defense slides.

Useful Links

• CIT Thesis and dissertation standards
• Dissertations and Theses @ Carnegie Mellon This link opens in a new window Covers 1920-present. Full text of some dissertations may be available 1997-present. Citations and abstracts of dissertations and theses CMU graduate students have published through UMI Dissertation Publishing. In addition to citations and abstracts, the service provides free access to 24 page previews and the full text in PDF format, when available. In most cases, this will be works published in 1997 forward.
• Communicate your research data Data visualization is very important in communicating your data effectively. Check out these do's and don'ts for designing figures.

Power Point Template and other Resources

• CEE Powerpoint Slide Presentation Template 1
• CEE Powerpoint Slide Presentation Template 2

Source: CEE Department Resources https://www.cmu.edu/cee/resources/index.html

• CMU Powerpoint Slide Template

Source: CMU Marketing and Communications

https://www.cmu.edu/marcom/brand-standards/downloads/index.html

• Use of CMU logos, marks, and Unitmarks

Email me for questions and schedule an appointment

Top 7 tips for your defense presentation

1. show why your study is important, remember, your audience is your committee members, researchers in other fields, and even the general public. you want to convince all of them why you deserve a ph.d. degree. you need to talk about why your study is important to the world. in the engineering field, you also need to talk about how your study is useful. try to discuss why current practice is problematic or not good enough, what needs to be solved, and what the potential benefits will be. , see how dr. posen and dr. malings explained the importance of their studies..

• Carl Malings Defense Slides with Notes
• I. Daniel Posen Defense Slides with Notes

2. Emphasize YOUR contribution 

Having a ph.d. means that you have made some novel contributions to the grand field. this is about you and your research. you need to keep emphasizing your contributions throughout your presentation. after talking about what needs to be solved, try to focus on emphasizing the novelty of your work. what problems can be solved using your research outcomes what breakthroughs have you made to the field why are your methods and outcomes outstanding you need to incorporate answers to these questions in your presentation. , be clear what your contributions are in the introduction section; separate what was done by others and what was done by you. , 3. connect your projects into a whole piece of work, you might have been doing multiple projects that are not strongly connected. to figure out how to connect them into a whole piece, use visualizations such as flow charts to convince your audience. the two slides below are two examples. in the first slide, which was presented in the introduction section, the presenter used a flow diagram to show the connection between the three projects. in the second slide, the presenter used key figures and a unique color for each project to show the connection..

• Xiaoju Chen Defense Slides with Notes

4. Tell a good story 

The committee members do not necessarily have the same background knowledge as you. plus, there could be researchers from other fields and even the general public in the room. you want to make sure all of your audience can understand as much as possible. focus on the big picture rather than technical details; make sure you use simple language to explain your methods and results. your committee has read your dissertation before your defense, but others have not. , dr. cook and dr. velibeyoglu did a good job explaining their research to everyone. the introduction sessions in their presentations are well designed for this purpose. .

• Laren M. Cook Defense Slides with Notes
• Irem Velibeyoglu Defense with Notes

5. Transition, transition, transition

Use transition slides to connect projects , it's a long presentation with different research projects. you want to use some sort of transition to remind your audience what you have been talking about and what is next. you may use a slide that is designed for this purpose throughout your presentation. , below are two examples. these slides were presented after the introduction section. the presenters used the same slides and highlighted the items for project one to indicate that they were moving on to the first project. throughout the presentation, they used these slides and highlighted different sections to indicate how these projects fit into the whole dissertation. .

You can also use some other indications on your slides, but remember not to make your slides too busy.  Below are two examples. In the first example, the presenter used chapter numbers to indicate what he was talking about. In the second example, the presenter used a progress bar with keywords for each chapter as the indicator. 

Use transition sentences to connect slides 

Remember transition sentences are also important; use them to summarize what you have said and tell your audience what they will expect next. if you keep forgetting the transition sentence, write a note on your presentation. you can either write down a full sentence of what you want to say or some keywords., 6. be brief, put details in backup slides , you won't have time to explain all of the details. if your defense presentation is scheduled for 45 minutes, you can only spend around 10 minutes for each project - that's shorter than a normal research conference presentation focus on the big picture and leave details behind. you can put the details in your backup slides, so you might find them useful when your committee (and other members of the audience) ask questions regarding these details., 7. show your presentation to your advisor and colleagues, make sure to ask your advisor(s) for their comments. they might have a different view on what should be emphasized and what should be elaborated. , you also want to practice at least once in front of your colleagues. they can be your lab mates, people who work in your research group, and/or your friends. they do not have to be experts in your field. ask them to give you some feedback - their comments can be extremely helpful to improve your presentation. , below are some other tips and resources to design your defense presentation. .

• Tips for designing your defense presentation

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PhD Projects – What is it & how to do one

When researching for your PhD program, you may encounter terms such as PhD projects, thesis, and more. What is a PhD project?

In this post, we explore what a PhD project is, and how is it different from say, PhD thesis and dissertation. We also look at what PhD students do to complete their project. 

What Is A PhD Project? What’s The Aim?

Diving into a PhD project is like embarking on a grand academic adventure at a university. It’s not just about getting that coveted title but about pushing the boundaries of knowledge in your chosen field.

The heart of a PhD lies in its project, a rigorous exploration led by you, the doctoral candidate, under the mentorship of seasoned faculty members.

A PhD project is usually documented down as a dissertation, thesis, or other research papers that would contribute to the current body of knowledge.

Imagine working on a project that not only challenges you intellectually but also has the potential to transform how we understand a particular phenomenon.

A PhD in economics might dissect the intricate dance of market forces and policies, providing fresh insights that could inform better decision-making in corporate America or even shape public policy.

The PhD project isn’t a solitary journey. It thrives on diversity, drawing strength from a rich tapestry of backgrounds and perspectives.

Recognising the value of this diversity, initiatives like The PhD Project, founded in 1994, have been pivotal. They aim to:

• increase the representation of minority groups in business schools,
•  enriching the academic environment and, by extension,
• the corporate landscape.

Through unique events and a robust support network, including partners like LinkedIn, these initiatives empower doctoral students, providing scholarships and resources to navigate the academic world.

These efforts underscore the importance of bringing historically underrepresented voices into academia.

By fostering a more diverse faculty, universities can inspire and educate the next generation of leaders, ensuring that the classroom reflects the diversity of the workforce and the customer base it serves.

What Do a PhD Student Do In A PhD Project?

When students are in their PhDs, they perform a myriad of tasks. Here are some that they do, as they complete their PhD programme: 

In-depth Research

At the core of a PhD project is the pursuit of new knowledge. Students engage in: 

• rigorous investigation,
• analyzing data, and
• exploring vast literatures to uncover novel insights in their field.

Whether it’s deciphering historical manuscripts or applying complex mathematical models, this foundational activity is where innovation begins.

Building a broad and diverse network is crucial.

PhD students connect with peers, faculty, and professionals across various platforms like LinkedIn, and at academic conferences.

These connections provide support, foster collaborations, and open doors to opportunities in academia and industry.

Guided by experienced professors, PhD students receive invaluable:

• direction, and

This mentor-mentee relationship is pivotal, offering insights from seasoned academics who’ve navigated similar paths and can share the nuances of academic and professional development.

Academic Writing

Crafting a dissertation is a monumental task that hones a student’s writing prowess. This extensive document encapsulates their research findings and contributions to the field, requiring clear, concise, and compelling communication.

PhD students spend hours learning how to write good academic writing. This is usually achieved by:

• Attending workshops
• Fixing drafts reviewed by more experienced academic
• Reading many research papers.

Presenting at Conferences and Seminars

Sharing research with the academic community is a key aspect of a PhD project. In fact, most PhD programs require their students to present papers.

Students present at conferences, engage in scholarly debates, and receive feedback, enhancing their research and building their reputation.

Many PhD students also take on teaching roles, leading undergraduate or graduate courses. This experience is not just about imparting knowledge but also about inspiring and guiding future generations, honing their own skills in communication and leadership in the process.

PhD Project vs PhD Dissertation

A PhD dissertation is the essence of your doctoral journey, distilled into a single, substantial document. It’s the narrative of your PhD project, a tale of discovery, challenge, and innovation.

In the world of academia, this dissertation is your passport to the realm of scholars. It’s where you present your research findings, meticulously compiled and critically analyzed, to your university and the wider scholarly community.

A PhD project as a voyage across the vast ocean of your field, where you chart unexplored territories and navigate through the complexities of your research question.

The dissertation, in contrast, is the logbook of this journey, capturing every eureka moment and every storm weathered. Faculty mentors, often guide you in weaving this narrative, ensuring your story not only contributes to academia but also enriches the diversity of thought within it.

This is where the potential to inspire the next generation of researchers lies, especially those from historically underrepresented backgrounds, fostering a more inclusive and dynamic academic workforce.

PhD Projects Explained

A PhD project is a comprehensive research endeavour undertaken by doctoral students to contribute new knowledge to their field. Its aim is to develop critical thinking, research skills, and subject-matter expertise, culminating in a dissertation that showcases the student’s findings.

Through this rigorous process, PhD candidates are prepared to become the next generation of scholars, educators, and leaders, capable of addressing complex challenges and advancing their disciplines.

Dr Andrew Stapleton has a Masters and PhD in Chemistry from the UK and Australia. He has many years of research experience and has worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow and Associate at a number of Universities. Although having secured funding for his own research, he left academia to help others with his YouTube channel all about the inner workings of academia and how to make it work for you.

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• Published: 02 December 2015

How to build a better PhD

• Julie Gould 1  

Nature volume  528 ,  pages 22–25 ( 2015 ) Cite this article

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There are too many PhD students for too few academic jobs — but with imagination, the problem could be solved.

“Since 1977, we've been recommending that graduate departments partake in birth control, but no one has been listening,” said Paula Stephan to more than 200 postdocs and PhD students at a symposium in Boston, Massachusetts, in October this year.

Stephan is a renowned labour economist at Georgia State University in Atlanta who has spent much of her career trying to understand the relationships between economics and science, particularly biomedical science. And the symposium, 'Future of Research', discussed the issue to which Stephan finds so many people deaf: the academic research system is generating progeny at a startling rate. In biomedicine, said Stephan. “We are definitely producing many more PhDs than there is demand for them in research positions.”

Julie Gould picks apart the problems with the PhD system

The numbers show newly minted PhD students flooding out of the academic pipeline . In 2003, 21,343 science graduate students in the United States received a doctorate. By 2013, this had increased by almost 41% — and the life sciences showed the greatest growth. That trend is mirrored elsewhere. According to a 2014 report looking at the 34 countries that make up the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the proportion of people who leave tertiary education with a doctorate has doubled from 0.8% to 1.6% over the past 17 years.

Not all of these students want to pursue academic careers — but many do, and they find it tough because there has been no equivalent growth in secure academic positions. The growing gap between the numbers of PhD graduates and available jobs has attracted particular attention in the United States, where students increasingly end up stuck in lengthy, insecure postdoctoral research positions . Although the unemployment rate for people with science doctorates is relatively low, in 2013 some 42% of US life-sciences PhD students graduated without a job commitment of any kind, up from 28% a decade earlier. “But still students continue to enrol in PhD programmes,” Stephan wrote in her 2012 book How Economics Shapes Science . “Why? Why, given such bleak job prospects, do people continue to come to graduate school?”

One reason is that there is little institutional incentive to turn them away. Faculty members rely on cheap PhD students and postdocs because they are trying to get the most science out of stretched grants. Universities, in turn, know that PhD students help faculty members to produce the world-class research on which their reputations rest. “The biomedical research system is structured around a large workforce of graduate students and postdocs,” says Michael Teitelbaum, a labour economist at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “Many find it awkward to talk about change.”

But there are signs that the issue is becoming less taboo. In September, a group of high-profile US scientists (Harold Varmus, Marc Kirschner, Shirley Tilghman and Bruce Alberts, colloquially known as 'the Quartet') launched Rescuing Biomedical Research, a website where scientists can make recommendations on how to 'fix' different aspects of the broken biomedical research system in the United States — the PhD among them. “How can we improve graduate education so as to produce a more effective scientific workforce, while also reducing the ever-expanding PhD workforce in search of biomedical research careers?” the site asks.

Nature put a similar question to 33 PhD students, scientists, postdocs and labour economists and uncovered a range of opinions on how to build a better PhD system, from small adjustments to major overhauls. All agreed on one thing: change is urgent. “Academia really is going to have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the twenty-first century,” says Gary McDowell, a postdoctoral fellow at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, and a leader of the group behind the Future of Research symposium. The renovation needs to happen now, says Jon Lorsch, director of the US National Institute of General Medical Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. “We need to transform graduate education within five years. It's imperative. There's a lot at stake for scientists, and hence for science.”

Track the PhD

One place to begin is with hard facts: show prospective students and supervisors data on trainees' chances of moving into academic research or other careers. Prospective students “aren't thinking strategically about what they really want to do or what they're best suited for”, says Patricia Labosky, a programme director for scientific training at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland.

A 2015 Nature survey of more than 3,400 science graduate students around the world suggested that many were overly optimistic about their chances in academia. About 78% of respondents said that they were “likely” or “very likely” to follow an academic career, and 51% thought that they would land some type of permanent job in one to three years. In reality, only about 26% of PhD students in the United States move into tenured or tenure-track positions, and getting there can take much longer than this (see 'Ups and downs of PhDs').

But although some data exist about career paths, there are key gaps relating to the range of job opportunities, earnings, time spent as a postdoc and long-term career trajectories, says Julia Lane, an economist at New York University. A January report on post-PhD careers by the US Council of Graduate Schools in Washington DC found that there are no standardized ways to collect information on graduates after they have left their educational institution; only around one-third of universities in the United States and Canada formally compile such data.

In October, Stanford University in California published the results of a major effort to track graduates either 5 or 10 years after their PhD. It showed that the number of bioscience PhD students progressing to postdoctoral positions had dropped from 41% to 31% in the more recent graduate group, and that many were moving into business, government or non-profit positions. This probably reflects the growing bottleneck in academic jobs and booming opportunities in business.

Lane is leading a more comprehensive effort to track career outcomes in research called UMETRICS, which is based at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. By combining anonymized human-resource and administrative data from universities with US Census Bureau data on earnings, places of work and job titles, UMETRICS will be able to produce campus-level reports on the career outcomes of graduate students. A student interested in a chemistry PhD, for example, could scan a campus report and see what previous graduates went on to do, where they went and how much they earn. It will take several years before the first data sets are released, Lane says — but when they are, “the students opting in to graduate schools will go in with eyes wide open”.

Revamp the PhD

Many PhD students enjoy the intellectual freedom of a PhD for a few years and then successfully move on to other things . But a lot of students want more preparation and training for that step — such as building skills in management, budgeting or negotiation . “Apparently, you have to learn these things somewhere on the side, since you are supposed to spend all your time as a PhD and postdoc doing research,” says Joanna Klementowicz, a postdoc at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

The current graduate education system in many countries is based on an apprenticeship model, wherein lab heads train younger researchers in the craft of research. This system has been prominent since the 1800s, when the first 'modern' PhD was awarded by the University of Berlin. Although the scientific enterprise has changed dramatically since then, the PhD system has not .

Modernizing the PhD could improve training in areas of research ranging from reproducibility to experimental design and entrepreneurship. It could also help to solve the bottleneck problem by equipping doctorate holders with soft skills that make them more employable wherever they go. “We need to tailor graduate education to meet the needs of students without violating what it means to be a scientist,” says Alan Leshner, chief executive emeritus of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington DC.

Some funding bodies and research institutions have already taken this on board . In 2013, the NIH started the Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training (BEST) initiative — a US$3.7-million programme that is designed to improve training for biomedical PhDs and postdocs. “We got a lot of feedback from [employers] that the graduates weren't ready for careers outside of academia,” says Labosky, who heads the programme.

At UCSF, PhD students on the BEST programme spend nine months training in areas such as management, interviewing and networking, and are put into groups that work together to explore career objectives. “The programme made me practical: I learned to look out for what I can apply for, what my skills were matched to and what people with a PhD like mine go on to do,” says Klementowicz, who took the programme as a postdoc.

Some scientists would like to see particular emphasis put on teamwork to reflect the increasingly collaborative nature of research. David Golan, dean of graduate education at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, is considering how to ingrain teamwork more deeply into the graduate-school experience. “We have toyed with the idea of having students form a team before they apply to grad school,” he says. They might then be given a project to work on together throughout their training — and perhaps even be examined together.

Split the PhD

There may be too many PhD graduates for academia, but there is plenty of demand for highly educated, scientifically minded workers elsewhere. So some scientists propose that the PhD should be split into two: one for future academics and a second to train those who would like in-depth science education for use in other careers.

Biologist Anthony Hyman, director of the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany, is one of those who thinks that a split PhD might work. Students in the academic-track PhD would focus on blue-skies research and discovery, he says. A vocational PhD would be more structured and directed towards specific careers in areas such as radiography, machine learning or mouse-model development.

We need to transform graduate education within five years. It's imperative.

A similar concept already exists in engineering: students in the United Kingdom, the United States, France and Germany can choose to study for either an academic-style PhD in engineering or a doctorate in engineering (EngD), which is designed with industrial careers in mind and often involves a supervisor in industry alongside one in academia. David Stanley, who manages an EngD programme that focuses on nuclear engineering at the University of Manchester, UK, says that the programme is aimed at supplying industry with employees. “Graduates with an EngD are highly valued in industry, more than those with PhDs, because of their extended training,” he says.

Elsewhere, industrial PhDs are taking shape in the biomedical sciences. One of the oldest government-organized industrial PhD schemes is run by Innovation Fund Denmark, which supports students who are simultaneously enrolled at a Danish university and employed (and paid) by a private-sector company. Melanie Sinche, director of education at the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine in Farmington, Connecticut, is enthusiastic about the idea of a vocational PhD at her institute, where it might fulfil a need for more expert computational biologists. “The number of people qualified to do this is small, and there are lots of employers competing for this small pool of candidates,” she says.

But the split PhD could face challenges if the two tracks are valued in different ways: academics could view a vocational PhD as second-class, whereas tech companies could view an academic PhD as too abstruse for the real world. That could end up limiting the career options of doctorates rather than broadening them, says Hyman. Stanley counters that EngD students do not have that problem. “A couple of students a year find their way back into academia to conduct research,” he says.

Skip the PhD

Some scientists call for more drastic measures — cutting down the number of people who pursue a PhD.

Siphoning off more students into master's programmes is one way to reduce PhD numbers, says Bruce Alberts, professor of biochemistry and biophysics in the department of medicine at UCSF. A master's can offer advanced scientific training that is sufficient for many careers, as well as a taste of research, in one or two years rather than the four or five eaten up by a typical PhD. “In an ideal world, everyone would go in for a master's,” Alberts says.

Master's degrees are already common across Europe. In the Netherlands, students are required to complete a master's before embarking on a PhD. “There are many who don't want to be in academia who leave with a master's to work in government institutions, companies, in publishing,” says Frank Miedema, professor and head of immunology at the University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands. “And a master's is not considered a failure for those who can't make it to a PhD.”

Victoria Evans graduated with a master's degree in astrophysics from Cardiff University, UK, in 2012. “The research project in the master's gave me an insight into what a PhD project would be like,” she says, “and I came to the conclusion that it wasn't what I wanted to do.” She now works as a nuclear-safety engineer for EDF Energy on the west coast of Scotland. “The problem-solving and analytical skills that I learned during my master's were more than sufficient for me to work in this field.”

In the United States, the science master's has often had a lower status than the PhD — but universities are now launching more of them. Between 2000 and 2011, the number of science and engineering master's degrees available increased by 57%, compared with a 38% increase in doctoral degrees, according to the US National Science Foundation. Part of that growth has been in the professional science master's degree, a programme developed in the late 1990s as a graduate degree that would simultaneously develop scientific and workplace skills. Last year, Harvard Medical School introduced a two-year master's in immunology aimed at students who want additional classroom and research experience to help them decide whether to continue on to a PhD or MD, or to transition to industry.

But master's programmes are no panacea. Unlike most doctoral students, master's students in the United States and Europe are often required to pay for their tuition, and that could dissuade many from signing up. “This does create a social access problem,” said neuroscientist Eve Marder of Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, at last month's Future of Research meeting.

Cut the PhDs

Labour economists have been advocating for a reduction in the number of graduate students who enter biomedical sciences for several decades. Yet there is enormous resistance to change. That's what the Quartet found, when it proposed gradually reducing the numbers of PhD students as part of its efforts to rescue biomedical research. “This idea has had the most opposition from our colleagues,” says Alberts. Faculty members and research institutions may be especially reluctant to give up the cheap workers who power their research when government funding for biomedicine has fallen, as it has in the United States for the past decade or so. And some scientists argue that fewer PhD graduates would be a loss to science and society as a whole. “The draconian measures of restricting access to graduate school is detrimental to science,” said Marder at the Future of Research meeting. “It means we would restrict the imagination in our workforce.”

Cuts to PhD programmes haven't gone down well. When the Canadian Institutes of Health Research cancelled its 30-year-old MD/PhD programme earlier this year owing to budget tightening, academics and students reacted with horror. But other fields regulate the flow of students into courses to match supply to demand. The American Bar Association, which oversees the legal system in the United States, attempts to regulate the number of qualified lawyers by exerting strict control over the number of law schools. And bar associations set fiendishly difficult examinations for would-be lawyers to get into law school in the first place.

In an ideal world, everyone would go in for a master's.

Stiffer entrance assessments for those who want to pursue a PhD could cut down entrant numbers — if the right criteria can be found. In the United States, Graduate Records Examinations (GREs) are used as a way of selecting entrants for graduate school, but the system is hardly perfect: one survey showed that 37% of US biology PhD students drop out before completing their degree. When Orion Weiner, a molecular biologist at UCSF, did a small, retrospective study of graduate students admitted onto one of his university's biology PhD programmes, he found that previous experience in research and the subject-specific GRE results (but not the analytical, verbal or quantitative elements) were good indicators of future success in graduate school.

A broader entrance assessment could look at students' experience in communication, management, teamwork and career goals. That could be used to filter students with a passion for academic or industrial research towards PhD programmes and send others into a master's or other types of training, says Bill Lindstaedt, executive director for career advancement at UCSF.

Stephan believes that funding bodies should have a major role in limiting the number of biomedical PhD places to better match supply and demand, and she also proposes that students should contribute to their training costs. “When we have to pay something out of pocket, we think a little more clearly about whether that is a good fit for us,” she says. Such ideas may be controversial — but many people say that they have to be considered.

At the heart of the problem, say scientists, is that the community is not discussing the PhD problem enough. “There is a reluctance from supervisors to tell undergrads and grad students the reality of the system,” says postdoc McDowell. “The misinformation exists because the system is worried about deflecting smart people from entering.” Although principal investigators acknowledge the difficulty of securing an academic position, the system worked for them and so it is tempting to tell students that they can do it too — just another experiment, another publication or another year, and you'll get there.

Grass-roots groups such as Future of Research are calling attention to the issue, as are efforts such as Rescuing Biomedical Research. Meanwhile, some experts say that the onus falls partly on prospective and current PhD students to make sure their eyes are open . They should arm themselves with as much information as possible, says Labosky, so that “they are aware of their alternative options and can make plans”.

Stephan does see some prospect that her call for PhD birth control will be heard. She says that change might happen naturally, as more information becomes available on career outcomes, and that flat funding streams could prevent further growth in biomedical PhDs. “Individuals might become less focused on PhD production, and universities and faculty are more likely to pay attention to these recommendations.”

Teitelbaum, for his part, does not favour a large cut in biomedical PhDs, and instead prefers a more considered approach. “Find out why people start PhDs and what they think their career prospects are from the very beginning,” he says. “Like ballet dancers or actors, if they chose to take it on knowing their chances of becoming a successful professor, then let them carry on.”

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Fellowships are the future 2015-Dec-02

Make the most of PhDs 2015-Dec-02

Graduate survey: Uncertain futures 2015-Oct-21

The future of the postdoc 2015-Apr-07

How not to deal with the PhD glut 2014-Oct-22

There is life after academia 2014-Sep-03

Life outside the lab: The ones who got away 2014-Sep-03

Employment: PhD overdrive 2014-Jul-09

Fix the PhD 2011-Apr-20

Education: The PhD factory 2011-Apr-20

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Reform the PhD system or close it down 2011-Apr-20

What is a PhD really worth? 2011-Apr-20

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How do I formulate the research design for my PhD thesis?

The research design must be done correctly otherwise the dissertation will not be successful. But how do I create a suitable research design for my topic? How can I even know that my approach is appropriate? How can I be sure that I will gain the right insight? Question after question. Here are the answers.

What is the research design anyway and why do I need it?

The research design is a detailed and systematic description of all steps needed to answer the research question. It shows your way of discovering new knowledge and consists of many elements. It helps to have the design handy when you start to organize your project. The more detailed the better and the more concrete your design, the easier it will be to implement.

What belongs in the research design?

• The research question, detailed questions and possibly hypotheses, the design of YOUR research model with relevant variables and factors
• Methods of data collection such as interviews, surveys, observations, documentations, measurements etc.,
• Decisions on the type of data, data sources and description of the samples,
• Tools for data collection such as interview guidelines or questionnaires etc.,
• Methods and tools for data evaluation such as statistical methods, content analysis etc.,
• Timetable for implementation.

When and how do I develop the appropriate research design?

You start with the design already in the proposal. This is your first draft. Prerequisites for the research design are the subject, research question and goal. They are your compass. You also need models on the topic for the classification of your variables and thus of the data. Here is an example: digitization in SMEs. How is digitization evolving inside SMEs? Operationalized research question: Which concepts do SMEs use when digitizing their business processes? You can create case studies and conduct an expert survey. You need models on SMEs, digitization and business processes. These models contain players, data, processes, activities, regulations, IT system and much more. Then you can collect data on the concrete concepts the SMEs studies used for digitization.

How do I check the research design for completeness and correctness?

Your design must meet 3 requirements:

• The methodology must definitely work and it must lead to an insight. A good test is whether the methods have already worked in other studies. Completely new methods are risky.
• The data must be obtainable, in quality and scope.
• The aids must be able to produce good results.

How do I test the research design?

• Simulate your research process. Are these the right detailed questions or sub questions?
• Do the answers to the detailed questions close the gap in research? Have I defined the correct data?
• Does this data match the objects in the detailed questions? Do I have the right data sources?
• Are there perhaps still better sources than the one I already found? Can the methods be used to evaluate the collected data?
• Has anyone ever described this in an article?
• How do I structure and describe the research design in the text?

Describe the research design in the text as a separate chapter in your dissertation.

To do so, you should answer about 20 questions. Here are the first so-called micro questions:

• What exactly is analyzed? Who or what is the focus of the analysis?
• What is the aim of the analysis? What insight will be gained?
• Which methods can be used for the analysis?
• What are the decision criteria for choosing a method?
• Why am I using a particular method?

Additional micro questions can be found in the 200 Days Dissertation Guide. Answer all these questions and your research design will be ready!

What sources do I need for the research design?

The best papers are those that have dealt with a related question. The methods are described there but are usually not comprehensive so you will also need method books. However, maybe an article is good but quite old. Don’t worry because methods are quite timeless. Papers on other issues are also interesting for the design if they have used certain suitable methods.

Method books are useful when it comes to the description. They are also more general and not just focused on one case.

How can I tell that my research design is "complete"?

The design is complete when the questions in the chapter ‘Research Design’ are answered and your supervisor knows the procedure and considers it useful. Actually this question is only finally answered when you have collected and evaluated all the data. Until then, minor changes in your research design are still necessary.

How do I work with the research design?

Just go for it! That's it! Let's go! Good luck writing your text!

Silvio and the Aristolo Team

PS: Check out the PhD Guide for writing a PhD in 200 days .

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How to Conceptualize and Implement a PhD Program in Health Sciences—The Basel Approach

Franziska keller.

1 Institute of Nursing Science, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Suzanne Dhaini

Matthias briel.

2 Basel Institute for Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics and Department of Clinical Research, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Sina Henrichs

3 Vice President’s Office for Research, Graduate Center, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Christoph Höchsmann

4 Department of Sport, Exercise and Health, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Daniel Kalbermatten

5 Division of Plastic, Reconstructive & Aesthetic Surgery and Hand Surgery, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Nino Künzli

6 Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) and University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Annette Mollet

7 Institute of Pharmaceutical Medicine, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Christian Puelacher

8 Department of Cardiology, Cardiovascular Research Institute Basel, University Hospital Basel and University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Arno Schmidt-Trucksäss

Belinda von niederhäusern.

9 Clinical Trial Unit, Department of Clinical Research, University Hospital Basel and University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Sabina De Geest

10 Department of Public Health, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Objectives:

Over the past decade, several excellent guidelines have been published on how to enhance the quality of PhD education in Europe. Aimed primarily at preparing students for innovative roles in their fields, they include variously structured approaches to curricular offerings, as well as other program components applicable across specialties (eg: supervisor support, scientific conduct, transferable skills). Since 2012, the interdisciplinary PhD Program in Health Sciences (PPHS) at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Basel in Switzerland has focused on translating these guidelines into a 21st-century health sciences PhD program.

The PPHS started in 2012 based on the European Union (EU) guidelines for PhD education. This article describes the resulting interdisciplinary PhD program’s conceptual underpinnings, rationale, structures, and 10 building blocks, like student portfolios, thematic training, interdisciplinary research seminars, student-initiated interdisciplinary activities, financial support of course participation, top-up and extension stipends, PhD supervision, research integrity, alumni follow-up network, and promotional tools including a dedicated website. Students enter from Clinical Research, Medicine Development, Nursing Science, Epidemiology and Public Health including Insurance Medicine, Sport Science (all from the Faculty of Medicine), and Epidemiology (Faculty of Science).

Discussion and Conclusion:

The Basel PPHS exemplifies state-of-the-art PhD education in Health Sciences based on European guidelines and offers guidance to other groups from conceptualization to rollout of an interdisciplinary health sciences PhD program.

Introduction

Health science research is critical for societal health. 1 The current health care delivery and service paradigm demand that researchers use state-of-the-art skills to find innovative solutions to problems inside and outside of academic settings. As a result, over the past 25 years, both in North America and in Europe, the education and resources allocated for future researchers, mainly through PhD programs, has become a focus of much academic policy. 2 , 3

In North America, the bachelor’s/master’s/doctoral scheme and a transferable credit system have been in place for more than a century 4 ; in Europe, they are a very recent development. In addition, North American PhD education has a strong curricular component, whereas European programs are more research-based, with students engaging in research from the start in addition to course work.

In Europe, both the Bologna Declaration of 1999 5 and the Lisbon Strategy of 2000 2 affected the conceptualization of doctoral education and training. Both began with the premise that more and better-trained researchers were needed to make Europe the world’s most competitive knowledge-based economy. 2 , 6 - 11 From that perspective, policy makers have examined doctoral education and requested that universities develop institutional strategies 2 to train young researchers by and through original research. 12

In 2005, the Salzburg Principles confirmed that research institutions need flexible regulations to create the structures and instruments necessary to advance doctoral training. 13 Since then, the education of competent junior scientists at European universities has become a strategic goal to secure Europe’s position in the global knowledge economy. 1 Furthermore, to meet the expanding employment market needs, the May 2005 Ministerial Conference in Bergen 12 urged universities to promote interdisciplinary doctoral training and the development of transferable skills. In that context, several European Union (EU) forces driving PhD education have emerged, including the Organization for PhD Education in Biomedicine and Health Sciences in the European System (ORPHEUS), which includes around 80 European biomedical and health science faculties and institutions, and the League of European Research Universities (LERU). Working together, these groups safeguard the reputation of the PhD as a research degree, strengthen career opportunities for PhD graduates, and advocate the promotion of research at European universities.

In Switzerland, the Rectors’ Conference of the Swiss Universities 14 has developed a joint position paper on the doctorate acknowledging that their institutions’ common objectives and structures are in line with the European positions. The Rectors’ Conference 14 provides no details regarding PhD education, and each Swiss university structures, designs, and confers its own doctorates. This decentralized education mirrors the Swiss Confederation’s small-scale federalist political system. 15 In fact, along with the Swiss National Science Foundation, the main health science funding agency, the advancement of scientific research is primarily the federal government’s responsibility. 15 , 16

The University of Basel, Switzerland, is a publicly funded university founded in 1460. It currently serves almost 13 000 students, of whom 16% are PhD students. 14 Due to strong collaboration with the pharmaceutical and chemical industries, the University of Basel has become a cluster for health sciences. Its 7 faculties offer numerous PhD programs and establish regulations for the implementation and monitoring of doctoral training. 17 From that perspective, the Faculty of Medicine established the PhD Program in Health Sciences (PPHS) 18 in 2012, following a call by the University Rectorate for funding to stimulate and support the development of doctoral programs. The PPHS was launched as an interdisciplinary, inter-professional PhD training platform for students from 6 health-related PhD disciplines offered by 2 faculties: Clinical Research, Medicine Development, Nursing Science, Epidemiology and Public Health including Insurance Medicine, Sport Science (all from the Faculty of Medicine), and Epidemiology (Faculty of Science).

Thus, the PPHS is a support system for PhD education to optimize students’ scientific, professional, and personal development. The program’s mandate reflects the call to increase inter-professionality at the national and international levels and allows maximum networking across health science disciplines that share methodological and statistical approaches.

The PPHS’s governance is headed by a steering committee consisting of 1 representative professor from each of the 5 participating departments, 3 PhD student representatives, and the program coordinator. Guided by national and international guidelines as well as evidence, contextual factors, and university regulations, they decide on program strategies, operationalize the instruments necessary to roll out those strategies, evaluate the quality of proposed initiatives, and continuously optimize their approaches.

Their aim is that each PhD student is fully integrated into a research group and complies with mandatory university PhD regulations regarding publications and European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits. The PhD students are selected by the supervisors. Following the PhD regulations of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Basel, they require a degree from the University of Basel or other acknowledged institution, usually in form of a master’s degree in the field relevant to the planned area of study. Acceptance to the PhD program and progress (toward completion) are monitored by an interdisciplinary PhD board at the level of the Faculty of Medicine. Main criteria for acceptance are the professional background of the candidate, the fit with the supervisor, the subject of the PhD thesis, the quality of the proposal—in particular the adequacy of the methods—and the fulfillment of the financial guarantee for the whole PhD. A personal PhD committee directly supervises each student’s PhD. The program is thus composed primarily of research-based training, complemented by structured training activities provided through the PPHS’s educational infrastructure. The PPHS has no direct supervisory role.

The PPHS is evaluated by the Rectorate of the University of Basel at the end of a financial period. The evaluation is based on the general academic objectives, the organizational structure, the appointment procedure of the students, the structure and content of the training, the activities of the doctoral students within the program, the supervision concept, the mobility of the students, the internationality of experts, the quality of assurance and reporting, the existing collaborations, and the adequate use of funds. PPHS evaluates each course offering and makes regular surveys among its member students.

As an educational platform, the PPHS’s goal is to enable students to become qualified researchers with a comprehensive knowledge base specific to their discipline, to acquire advanced training, and to enhance their research dissemination skills. And as an example of current innovations in European PhD education in health sciences, we describe the conceptualization, implementation, and primary outcomes of the PPHS at the University of Basel.

The PhD Program in Numbers

Although the PPHS started in late 2012, only in 2015 the PhD students had to register and we can track them. Before 2015, all the PhD students of the included disciplines were automatically members. The number of registered PhD students is growing (2015: 65, 2018: 94). Therefore, we have only very few graduates. The mean time to degree lies between 3 and 4 years. Some graduates continue in the academic world, in their specialized formation as doctor or go to the private sector ( Figure 1 ).

Number of PhD students enrolled in PPHS. PPHS indicates PhD Program in Health Sciences.

The PPHS: Description of its 10 Building Blocks

The PPHS has been conceptually guided by the Salzburg II recommendations, 13 the LERU guidelines for PhD education, 19 good practice in doctoral training, 20 and the ORPHEUS standards 21 ( Table 1 ). It consists of 10 building blocks, all guided by interdisciplinary competencies and supported by a coordination office as well as the transferable skills offerings at the University of Basel (see Figure 2 ).

Eight fundamental recommendations for a PhD program derived from the Salzburg II recommendations, 13 the LERU guidelines for PhD education, 19 good practice, 20 and the standards of ORPHEUS. 21

Abbreviations: LERU, League of European Research Universities; ORPHEUS, Organization for PhD Education in Biomedicine and Health Sciences in the European System.

The PPHS and its 10 building blocks.

Interdisciplinary competencies as defined by the PPHS

The PPHS competency framework ( Table 2 ) outlines the minimum competencies to be acquired by each student for completion of a health sciences PhD. In addition to assessing existing and lacking competencies, it guides students and supervisors regarding individual training needs. It anticipates and adjusts for the large variability in new students’ methodological and statistical skills. To ensure up-to-date information and meet current and future needs, this framework is continuously revised and adapted.

Interdisciplinary competency framework as defined by the PhD Program Health Sciences.

Abbreviations: CRF, Conditional Random Field; RCT, Randomized Controlled Trial; SOP, Standard Operating Procedure.

The PhD students obtain 3 sets of interdisciplinary competencies during their PhD training ( Table 2 ):

• Knowledge and scientific competencies : research methods, information literacy, scientific writing, professional conduct, ethics and integrity, and awareness of interdisciplinary contexts.
• Organization and management competencies : project management, self-management, and teaching.
• Leadership and personal competencies : communication and leadership.

All PhD students have to submit a Learning Agreement together with a full research proposal of their PhD project after the first 6 months of admission at the University of Basel. The Learning Agreement describes how they plan to fulfill the mandatory 18 ECTS. The PhD Board of the Medical Faculty provides written approval or feedback on the yearly Progress Reports and the Learning Agreement.

PPHS’ 10 building blocks

The PPHS consists of 10 building blocks (see Figure 2 ), chosen both to reflect the principles of doctoral education ( Table 1 ) and to optimize students’ professional development in view of the 3 sets of competencies ( Table 2 ).

Student portfolio

Each PhD student’s PhD track is individually developed within the framework of the applicable PhD regulations and the PPHS—taking into consideration the student’s professional background, needed competencies, and chosen research type. All also obtain ECTS credits in the 3 competency domains. They report their research in a cumulative dissertation of at least 3 papers. This makes PhD education “highly individual and by definition original” 13 and fundamentally different from bachelor- or master-level studies. The individual PhD track is reflected in an individually compiled student portfolio comprising information on course work as well as the PhD project’s aims and timetable. During the program, each portfolio also contains an overview of the student’s plans regarding attendance of workshops and courses (totaling a minimum of 18 ECTS credits [1 ECTS credit requires 25-30 hours of work]), national and international conferences, teaching activities, and publications. The student portfolio is individualized and tailored to the students’ needs of statistical and other methodological skills as well as competencies specifically required for the proposed PhD studies (see also Interdisciplinary competencies as defined by the PPHS).

Throughout the PhD program, the portfolio not only provides orientation and structure but also serves as a tool to assess progress. 24 - 26 Based on its content, each student is required to write an annual self-assessment for discussion with his or her PhD committee and for submission to the PhD board of the Faculty of Medicine. At this level, the PhD committee and the PhD board will take action to deal with any significant issues such as potential delays and related financial discussions or problems in the supervision of a PhD project. PhD students appreciate this regular written feedback on their performance.

PhD supervision

In line with university regulations, each PhD student is supervised by a specially chosen PhD committee. 27 Each committee meets at least once yearly to discuss the student’s annual self-assessment.

The ORPHEUS network 21 has established best-practice indicators for high-quality PhD supervision, certifying supervisors to mentor students, and to recognize and react to barriers to PhD students’ success. 28 , 29 In addition, an annual PPHS workshop helps senior researchers to promote the quality of their supervisory skills. Fully booked since their implementation, these workshops are highly appreciated by the supervisors.

Thematic training

One key change in PhD education in recent years has been the introduction of a wide range of professional development courses. 20 As students enter the PhD program with widely varying skills, training is available from basic to advanced levels. As all health sciences specialties employ comparable methodological approaches (eg, quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods, implementation science), these form the core content of PPHS training. Therefore, the PPHS offers health science–specific courses valuable across specializations:

• “Proposal Writing in Health Sciences,”
• “Good Scientific Conduct in Health Sciences,”
• “Academic Writing in Health Sciences, “
• “Essentials in Health Research Methodology,”
• “Walking in the Editors’ Shoes: Peer reviewing and journal editing for young researchers in health sciences,”
• “How to prepare a job application inside or outside of academia.”

All courses are optional and there is no defined course sequence. However, the first 4 mentioned courses are more suitable for PhD students in their first year and the 2 courses at the end of the list above are more suitable for advanced PhD students. A new agreement with the structured Swiss School of Public Health PhD Program in Public Health provides free access to further set of methodological and advanced courses.

For all the courses, Learning Outcomes are defined which reflect the competencies framework of PPHS. At the end of each course, students have to take an examination (mandatory) to evaluate if the PhD students have reached the Learning outcomes and hence acquired the necessary competencies.

Various international guidelines underpin the importance of training transferable skills (see also Table 1 ). 20 , 23 The trans-faculty Transferable Skills Program organized by the University of Basel Graduate Center offers a wealth of courses for all PhD students, enabling skill set enhancement through individualized selections of courses. Students in the Faculty of Medicine can also acquire ECTS credits through participation in these courses, further enhancing cross-discipline networking. This approach follows the European Commission’s Directorate General for Research and Innovation 23 recommendation that “doctoral training must be embedded in an open research environment and culture to ensure that any appropriate opportunities for cross-fertilization between the disciplines can foster the necessary breadth and interdisciplinary approach.”

Financial support for course participation

The PhD students must have the possibility to go to other universities. 28 PPHS financial support is available to all member students to attend external (including online) courses that complement their PhD education. Students can apply for up to 2000 CHF per PhD study in financial support to participate in courses not offered at the University of Basel. To be eligible, courses must be linked to the student’s portfolio, award ECTS credits, and cover competencies essential to the student’s PhD studies.

Interdisciplinary research seminars

Reflecting the European Commission’s 23 promotion of interdisciplinary cross-fertilization in research, PPHS interdisciplinary research seminars encourage networking and stimulate the exchange of diverse scientific perspectives and approaches, contributing to a creative and productive research environment. In this regard, the monthly meetings of the “Methods in Health Sciences” PhD Journal Club offer opportunities for members from all disciplines to present research manuscripts and receive critical feedback in an interdisciplinary peer review environment. In addition to their direct educational value, these presentations promote professional communication skills among peers. Following the peer review and discussion segments, a “meet and greet” period allows students to network and share experiences.

Student initiated interdisciplinary activities

International doctoral education should support bottom-up initiatives, also called student-initiated activities, 28 (p19) as “the ability to drive initiatives is part of a doctoral candidate’s process of becoming an independent researcher”; hence the annual PPHS call for student-initiated activities. Under the “Invite your expert” competition, which awarded 4 students in 2016, PPHS gives the opportunity to invite an international expert to deliver a lecture at the University of Basel. This encourages the participants to initiate activities autonomously, build transferable skills, and develop independent organizational skills.

Top-up and extension stipends

For students to benefit fully from their programs, their funding must be sufficient “to nurture an open and investigative research mindset.” 28 To allow excellent PhD students the opportunity to deepen their research experience, competitive PPHS top-up and extension stipends are available. Top-up stipends support unplanned and newly emerged projects during the PhD program; extension stipends allow the analysis and publication of additional material at the end. As a PhD’s financing must be guaranteed for 3 years at registration, these instruments add value and research resources beyond the program’s primary scope. In 2015, 10 stipends led to 16 additional publications.

Research integrity

In concordance with the 2015 ORPHEUS conference message 30 that knowledge and awareness of research integrity are central to the career development of all PhD students, starting in 2018, several PPHS courses will focus on good scientific conduct. Given the PPHS program’s interdisciplinary approach, best scientific conduct practices will soon be established across all the participating disciplines. Students are made aware of the University of Basel’s Code for Good Practice in Research 31 as well as the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences brochure, “Integrity in Scientific Research.” 32

Alumni follow-up network

Alumni networks help PhD students and the PPHS with career orientation information and feedback regarding the program’s quality. 23 , 33 Regular meetings with alumni expand the PPHS network and facilitate continuous assessment of its career development support. 34

Website and other promotional tools

For profile-raising, networking, and dissemination purposes, an interactive website is the most important PPHS promotional tool ( www.pphs.unibas.ch ). Offering a group identity in an interdisciplinary framework, 35 it includes links to the social media where current events are regularly posted. In addition, PPHS activities include welcome events for all new PhD students during their first year, a PhD day, and annual PPHS updates via faculty meetings (reaching out to supervisors), all of which raise PPHS awareness among PhD members and their supervisors. Student feedback is collected after each activity via a short questionnaire, and observations are constantly integrated for quality control and improvement.

PPHS coordination

The coordination of a PhD program is an overarching theme and not one of the building blocks ( Figure 2 ). According to Pifer and Baker, 24 PhD program administrators play key roles in establishing and fulfilling the missions, purposes, and processes of PhD education. University management should ensure that relevant staff members have pertinent competences to handle all day-to-day business. 28 The coordinator should be a research professional, normally holding a PhD. He or she must implement, monitor, and execute the designed strategy and activities decided by the PPHS Steering Committee, which comprises the second PPHS operational component.

The annual PPHS budget is 175 000 CHF, of which one-third is allocated to personnel costs. The remainder funds the activities of the 10 building blocks. The PhD students are paid by their supervisors.

Sustainability of the PPHS depends on continuous funding. Discussions are underway to integrate it within a larger Swiss interdisciplinary structure’s PhD Program in Public Health (Swiss School of Public Health+, SSPH+). 36 , 37 If the plan is adopted, the public health infrastructure will be combined with that of clinical research. Hopefully, such a mix will provide a model that will successfully bolster the academic public health work force. 38

This article describes the conceptualization and development, based on European guidelines and international evidence on PhD education, 20 , 28 of the PPHS, an interdisciplinary health sciences PhD program at the University of Basel, Switzerland. As the European Union is showing an increased interest and investment in developing forward-oriented PhD programs, awareness of this program can help universities to reflect on their own initiatives. For those introducing PhD programs, it will help to operationalize the various guidelines. A vibrant and highly functional interdisciplinary program, the PPHS promotes all the ideals put forward on the topic by the Directorate General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission. 23

As a single-faculty project, 39 the PPHS initially grew out of informal collaboration between staff from various health science disciplines. Admittedly, the competitive funding for PhD programs provided by the University Rectorate was crucial for the program’s launch. In countries with fewer resources available, 40 , 41 the PPHS remains relevant, as the program concept and building blocks can be adapted to the resources available. Where budgets are severely limited, the core components to be considered are the student portfolio and supervisor training.

The University of Basel’s individualized PhD tracks, including 18 ECTS points and involving research throughout the 3 years of the PhD, contrasts strongly to US-based PhD programs, which begin with course work, leading to qualifying examinations, followed by a research project. 2 It is beyond the scope of this article to evaluate the pros and cons of both models: both models have clearly emerged from distinct educational and societal contexts. Highly structured PhD programs with large formal course work components 2 are certainly an improvement on the loosely organized PhD tracks formerly common in Europe. The PPHS is a flexible educational platform that allows students and supervisors to plan PhD tracks while ensuring compliance with PhD requirements, course offerings, and other useful instruments. Considering the ultimate goal of optimizing the PhD experience, supervisors of PhD students also receive ample attention 27 ; supervisor courses have been booked out quickly clearly, indicating a strong need for this type of support as well as a willingness to improve supervision.

This article demonstrates that some principles drawn from international guidelines are easily transferred into practice. Others, such as transparent international recruitment of PhD students ( Table 1 ), are more difficult to implement, as they require close collaboration and homogenization of participating institutions’ processes. However, continuous monitoring of international guidelines helps to improve critical structures continuously.

The PPHS needs to be interpreted in the context of a policy that provides major incentives for PhD education. Active integration of national and local programs such as the PPHS into national structures would add further value for PhD students seeking interdisciplinary training and networking beyond those available through their universities.

Funding: The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Author Contributions: FK, SD and SDG took the lead in writing the manuscript. All authors provided critical and substantial feedback and helped shape the manuscript. MB, NK, AS, and SDG conceived the original idea. SDG supervised the whole project.

PhD Project 101: The Truth about choosing PhD Project Topics

Blog Summary

A PhD requires distinct skill sets from a master’s and a bachelor’s. The biggest obstacle for PhD candidates is choosing a project subject or problem statement. This blog article aims to inform readers about how to select and complete their PhD projects. Your inner motivation and areas of interest should be the top considerations while selecting your specialization. Never start a PhD program without getting clarification on the research labs you should choose. For application alerts, while enrolled in your master’s program, register with PhD Portals. Select an interest-provoking subject, then read everything there is to know about it. A successful thesis requires adhering to the “Write, Rewrite, and Write” cycle.

Tips to Write your PhD Thesis

Start your journey to obtaining a phd.

Pursuing a PhD, unlike your master’s or bachelor’s program, demands altogether different skill sets. You have a fixed set of subjects with some open elective and core-elective to study in those programs. But in a PhD program , you are aware of your stream of study like computer science, management, finance, humanities, etc.

But the PhD project topics on which you carry out research are wide open. You are supposed to narrow down to a particular thesis topic idea or field of study. Selecting a PhD project topic or problem statement is the biggest challenge for PhD students. This blog post attempts to educate scholars on selecting a PhD project of their choice and completing it.

How Do I Choose a PhD Project?

Choosing a PhD project topic is the primary work in pursuing a PhD program. It is not like choosing an undergraduate or postgraduate program. It demands patience. So, take your time.

Next, you should be in a position to decide what type of PhD project you want to pursue. Broadly there are three types of PhD projects:

• Advertised PhD projects
• Self-proposed PhD projects
• Professional Doctorates

The Advertised Projects are common in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Medicine (STEM) . Research groups and Well-established laboratories offer these programs.

The Self-proposed projects are common in the Humanities and Arts arena. Here, you are free to choose a thesis topic as long as it falls in the purview of a research topic.

Professional Doctorates in vocational subjects like Business and Management awarded to practitioners are not academic qualifications.

What Makes a good PhD Project?

A PhD project should, first of all, have a clear goal. So, it starts with a proposal. A PhD proposal is a clear and concise document illustrating the problem statement and the goals of your work. It should also highlight why it is worth pursuing?

A typical PhD project involves Five steps:

• Identifying a problem statement
• Carrying out a comprehensive literature review
• Conducting Original Research and finding out results
• Producing a Thesis that documents your results
• Writing the thesis and taking up Viva-Voce 

Tips for choosing a PhD project and topics

Here you have two sets of Tips:

• Tips to Apply for a PhD project and choosing a PhD project topic

Tips to Apply for a PhD project

1. Be Aware of Your Niche

Just because you are a computer science postgraduate and AI or Data Science is the trend; You needn’t select these areas. What matters is your interest and inner drive that should be the priority in choosing your niche.

2. Your Comfort Level to Relocate to Another City

Once you have identified your niche and the University/Research Labs, you may have to relocate to a new city. Make up your mind to relocate and also be decisive in making your choice.

3. Identify the Departments and Research Labs Succinctly

You are supposed to conduct a lot of research before boiling it down to a particular Department or University. This is a necessity as it is crucial to identify your core interests and ideas.

4. Obtain Clarity from Your Research Supervisor

Never dive into a PhD program without seeking clarity about the Research labs you are supposed to join. If it is a funded project, get clarification about all facts that are not obvious. Have one to one discussion with your Research Supervisor over Skype or any messenger to seek clarity regarding questions like,

• How many people work in the lab?
• What are their designations?
• Are you supposed to collaborate with any of them?

5. Register with PhD Portals to Get Application Alerts

During your Master’s Program, register with online portals that provide information on PhD programs offered by various Labs and Universities. This helps you to be informed about itineraries of multiple institutes.

6. Seek Seniors and Teachers Help

Ignorance is the biggest culprit that sinks your career ship. Regardless of how small your doubt is, get it clarified from your professors and seniors. Discuss issues like how to formulate an email, cover letter, resume, and other application procedures.

7. Understand the Team Well

It is not only the project that should create enthusiasm; it is also the team you will be working with. The team is vital to complete a project. Before diving into a project, try to understand whether you can get along with your teammates. 

8. Different Types of Funding Exists

When you apply for funded projects, you often come across various types. Some are not funded, while some are competition-funded also. Your enthusiasm for getting into the project plays a vital role in the supervisors picking you in competitive funding. So, Love your work to the core. 

9. Always Apply for More than One University/Institute

Prepare as many applications as possible and shoot them to different institutes. This process provides a wide array of experience in how to draft an application and approach the institutes. Such skills will help you in the long term.

10. Failure is the Stepping Stone to Success

You might fail once or twice in getting shortlisted or fail to perform in the interview. The number of interviews you have faced will help nurture your interpersonal skills.

Below are the general tips any PhD scholar should follow to be successful.

• While choosing a PhD project topic most crucial parameter is to rely on a topic that is interesting for you.
• Thoroughly read everything about the topic.
• Find a theoretical basis to support your idea.
• Be prepared to shift gears as the research progresses and your presumptions about the outcomes change.
• Be open to taking inputs from others to fine-tune your views.
• Formulate a committee of researchers,
• Be diligent in gathering data.
• The Panache for Effective Thesis Writing is Follow ing the “Write, Rewrite, and Write” Cycle. It doesn’t matter if your writing is good or bad; take tips from professional writers online. Most importantly, Good writing is all about Editing again and again. So, never feel daunted by Thesis writing; enjoy every bit of it.
• Sit with your Research Supervisor and prepare well-structured content with a Table of Content adequately defined. Regardless of being an expert writer or novice, your first draft always needs tweaking. Never be disheartened by re-editing work patience is key here.
• Thesis Writing needn’t be boring and monotony work. Bring in flair to your writing by inserting adjectives, says, expert writers.
• A chronologically written thesis is a misconception. As soon as you complete a piece of experiment or research, document it neatly when it is fresh in your mind. Later it can be integrated into the Final Thesis as per the Table of Contents.
• Once you research and write a chapter, take a break and come back with a critical perspective to discover possible mistakes. This always helps. Do not write in a marathon-style take breaks.
• Plagiarism is the biggest enemy of any research document. Whenever you quote an existing work, paraphrase properly and provide references and citations. 
• All universities have their Templates and Preferred Style of References . Religiously stick to the guidelines given by your university.
• Follow the same house style of spellings does not club “-ize” with “-ise” styles. If you prefer to use “improvize,” use it in all places, do not mix up with “improvise.”
• While quoting from other sources, ensure that you do not make spelling mistakes. Copy the quotes exactly.
• Your thesis is the window to showcase both your professionalism and research abilities to the outer world. Work with diligence and give it a professional appeal.

Why TSL-UCN?

Taksha Smartlabz in association with the University of Central Nicaragua (TSL-UCN) provides various PhD programs with an advanced blended learning system that is designed with working professionals in mind. It provides the opportunity to study from anywhere and at any time.

Taking up a PhD project involves various steps. Initially, you have to identify the domain of your interest and apply for a university or research lab. On getting selected, get involved in the meticulous work of carrying out research, documenting your findings, publishing papers, coming up with thesis work, and defending your work in research gathering.

The process of selecting your PhD project is the most crucial step in the entire process. Understanding whether you are looking out for Advertised/Self Proposed PhD projects or Professional Doctorates is vital in the initial stages.

Enroll now, to reap the benefits of this program, and obtain a PhD in your niche.

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How to write the perfect design dissertation

Tutors and students from top design colleges share their advice.

Studying design is about crafting a great design portfolio that will wow potential employers, right? Well, yes. But don't discount the importance of astute creative thinking, and expressing yourself eloquently through the written word. In short, your design dissertation matters.

"I don't believe that design students should be focused entirely on portfolio work," argues Myrna MacLeod , programme leader for Graphic Design at Edinburgh Napier University. "They should also be able to demonstrate an interest in the contexts that underpin their work, and the histories and connections that have informed our practice."

• 5 top tips for graduate designers

"Think of a dissertation as an opportunity, not a burden," urges Craig Burston , Graphic and Media Design course leader at London College of Communication (LCC). "It gives us visually-minded people an opportunity to demonstrate that we too can construct arguments and distil complex notions." 

As Burston points out, this is not just an academic exercise: the power of persuasion is often key to success as a commercial designer. "Clients seek clarity, and project concepts or proposals need to be put into context," he says.

Read on to discover some top tips from leading tutors and their students for nailing your design dissertation…

01. Treat it like a design brief

"A great dissertation should be a designed artefact, and portfolio-worthy in its own right," says Burston. And like a design brief, it should be about solving a problem: "Make sure it has clearly stated aims, strong focus, and doesn't lack opinion or rhetoric," he adds.

• Best laptops for graphic design

"The value of a designed dissertation as a portfolio piece is that it's a holistic view of the individual," agrees Sarah James , senior lecturer in Visual Communication at Arts University Bournemouth (AUB). 

"It shows, type, editorial, research and aesthetic skill, as well as the personal interests and convictions of the individual."

James identifies AUB student Maarit Koobas , who investigated responsive type in both her dissertation and final project, as a particularly strong example of this. "Her design version was one of the most authentic, restrained and elegantly expressive I have ever received," she enthuses.

Koobas conducted a huge amount of initial research into both the contexts in which responsive type can be seen – such as advertising, product design, science and material cultures – and the theories behind its analysis, including semiotics, philosophy and politics. "Creating and analysing ideas, before they end up in your portfolio, is what design is all about," argues Koobas.

• 5 must-read books for design students

02. Write about your passion

"To develop essay questions, AUB students are asked to consider what they love, hate or are puzzled by in their practice – essentially, what moves them," says James. 

"A poor dissertation is inauthentically chosen for ease as opposed to interest," she adds. "It rambles and blusters, using complex language to mask insufficient research." 

"You can tell a mile off when the writer isn't interested," agrees Burston. "How can you expect the reader to care about it if you don't? Write about something that reflects your interests, focus and direction. I've read fascinating dissertations on topics as diverse as patterns in nature, and Brutalist car parks. Make me interested in what interests you."

For Edinburgh Napier graduate Fiona Winchester , this topic turned out to be typography in graphic novels. "I love reading them, but I think people still don't take them seriously as an art form, which is a shame," she says. For her dissertation, she conducted qualitative interviews using modified pages with and without imagery (shown above). 

Her advice is simple: "Narrow down your idea to be as precise as possible. The smaller your question, the easier it is to research and try to answer it."

If you're struggling to get the ball rolling on the actual writing process, Winchester advocates starting with whichever bit you have ideas for. "If you're stuck, it's so much easier to write in whatever order it comes to you, and then edit it into a dissertation, than to try write straight through from beginning to end," she insists.

03. Don't be afraid to talk to people

"I always think my students get the most out of the new streams of knowledge they find from talking to people," says McLeod. "It breaks down barriers and allows them to find answers to problems. Hopefully they will adopt that approach when designing for people also."

In some cases, this can involve interviewing your design heroes. "Students are very surprised when they send a question to Stefan Sagmeister , Milton Glaser or Michael Wolff and they reply with the most precious nugget of knowledge," smiles McLeod. 

But remember: it's your dissertation, so don't get lazy and expect your interview subject to do all the heavy lifting.

In other cases, it could be as simple as asking friends or family to help proofread. "It is quite daunting writing such a large body of text," admits Kaori Toh , a recent graduate from Central Saint Martins, whose dissertation explored the politics of design and technology.

"I often felt I'd get lost in all that text and research," she confesses. "Therefore, I would often send my drafts to a couple of friends to have them look through, and keep my writing cohesive."

04. Reflect on your design practice 

Most of all, dissertations are an opportunity to reflect on, and develop, your creative process as a designer. "Ultimately, it's your job to make your work relevant and credible, and the dissertation helps you learn how to do this," adds Burston. 

Of course, writing doesn't always come easily to visually minded people – and Burston highlights the fact that dyslexia is not uncommon amongst designers. 

"You're not on your own – in our profession, quite the opposite in fact – so do seek academic support, and just enjoy thinking and writing about 'stuff' that informs your practice," is his advice.

One of Burston's stand-out students from this year, Tom Baber , welcomed support from the university to help with his dyslexia. Baber's dissertation focused on type design, and particularly the extent to which the longwinded design process is worth the effort, compared to using an existing typeface.

"I saw it as an opportunity to approach other type designers and see what they thought. Turns out I'm not the first to ask the question," he smiles. "Writing my dissertation helped me change from a 'maker' mentality to a 'designer' mentality, and be more critical of my ideas."

Related articles:

• 15 things they didn't teach you at design school
• The skills every design graduate needs
• 5 alternative routes into design education

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Tress Academic

#47: Plan your project – save your PhD!

March 31, 2020 by Tress Academic

Are you uncertain how your project will unfold? Do you have constant worries about the progress of your PhD project? Are you anxious that you won’t be able to finish on time? You’re not alone! We know these problems all too well. But, there’s only one way forward: Planning your project and the individual steps until completion. We’ll give you a helping hand with our quick-guide introducing you to PhD-planning in just 5 easy steps. 

Do you have a gut feeling that you’re losing too much time with the pace of your work right now? Is your inner voice whispering ‘This is not going to work out!’ Are you faced with sleepless nights because your current experiment is taking forever, or not yielding any early results? Perhaps your hand-in date is creeping closer and you’re not sure you’ll be able to make it to the finish line on time. 

All of these are very common PhD student worries and they can really bring you down. Unfortunately, we’re all too familiar with these thoughts. But what can you do to turn the dread into confidence about your project and give yourself peace-of-mind? 

One fantastic way to combat your anxieties is to have a close look at the timeline of your project and plan how it will unfold. Specifically, we mean  it’s time to plan your PhD!

In our courses for PhD students we emphasise the role of planning, and give step-by-step instructions on how to plan a PhD, because we know that for some PhD students, the words ‘PhD project’ and ‘planning’ do not mesh well together. Many want the freedom to make choices as they come (after years of studying hard, the PhD seems to give that) and don’t want to be restricted by a plan. Or worse, they think that if they plan something now, it’s set in stone and they’ll be forced to carry out their project exactly this way, so a plan at this stage would be pointless. 

But as we’ll show you below, planning your PhD project is: 

a) absolutely necessary, so forget your excuses not to do it  b) important c) completely doable !

Believe us, it is the number one strategy to calm your nerves, avoid sleepless nights, and to move your PhD project safely through the course and land it on the deadline. We know that taking the first step in planning is the most difficult one, so we’ve developed a super-handy Quick-guide: Planning your PhD project to get you started! It also functions as a ‘reboot’ for those of you who did ‘a bit’ of PhD planning some time in the past, but dropped it along the way. Are you ready to stop giving excuses?

Objections to planning your PhD project – and why they fall flat

Here are a few of the most common reasons we’ve heard PhD students say why they can’t create a plan. We want to share them with you, in case you recognise a similar train of thought you’ve been on..If some of this sounds familiar, it might help you to realise that maybe you were just looking for excuses

1. I am not ready yet – it’s too early to plan 

Too early? Ok, you can take a few weeks getting oriented at the beginning, but then sit down and start planning out your PhD project. Planning always reflects your knowledge of the state of the art at a particular date. You’re simply trying to get an idea of how your project would best unfold now. So no, it’s never too early!

2. Science needs creativity – I want to be able to react spontaneously

Great. We completely agree – and a creative mind is an important factor. But do not use ‘creativity’ as an excuse not to plan! There’s a lot of space for creativity in science since it’ll help you push beyond the boundaries of existing knowledge, but you still need to know the boundaries within which your project operates: e.g. available time, university requirements, graduate school programme, facilities, funding … just to mention a few. Even if you plan your project in detail, you can still make adjustments to follow your creative mind. But with a plan, you know what your goal is and what changes you want to make, plus what the implications are for this within the above-mentioned boundaries. 

3. I have a high-risk project – I can’t plan for something if I don’t know the outcome 

Right. Strictly speaking, you never really know the outcome of a scientific project (that’s why you do it!). But, of course, your ideas, assumptions, expectations, hypotheses, and options are based on your knowledge and assumptions. You don’t do research just to try something out, but because you have reason to believe it WILL give you a particular result (or to prove that it doesn’t). So you are planning with an assumption in mind, which we will call your goal. If your project involves risks, you should be familiar with them (e.g. plan for them) and reserve some of your resources in anticipation of what might happen. Whether or not it is a good strategy to pick a high-risk project for a PhD is another discussion entirely. But if you make a plan, at least you know the risks, you can adapt to it and have a plan B ready.

4. My project will change so it’s not worth sitting down and making a plan now.

Very well. Of course, it will change! We hope it will, or, to put it another way- it will evolve! PhD projects alter and get better as your body of knowledge on the subject grows. But, there is a fundamental difference between NOT PLANNING, and IMPROVING AND UPDATING AN EXISTING PLAN so that it reflects the latest developments. As your project changes, so does your plan. 

Planning is an ongoing activity: you start now and you finish once you tick-off the very last milestone on your project plan. 

5. I am a scientist, not an administrator! 

Of course you are, granted! But, did you know that in order to be really successful in science today, you also need to be pretty adept in a ton of so-called “complementary skills”? One of these is being able to organise, implement and successfully complete a project within a given timeframe and budget. In a few years, you’ll likely be applying for grants to coordinate much bigger research initiatives worth millions of EUR/USD/BP (or whatever your currency is). So learning to manage your project at the PhD stage is a rite of passage that will benefit your future career. It is a great skill to pick up now, so later you can demonstrate your expertise.

On a side note: We can’t forget to mention that writing and publishing papers is another crucial skill in academic work. And if you want to learn more about this in a structured way, look at our blog posts no. 5 How to get started with writing papers? or no. 36: 5 tips to get a paper accepted this year .

Why is planning so important? – How does it help my PhD?

Not planning a PhD project is the same as driving in the dark without headlights! You won’t know where you’re heading to, you can’t see the bumps in the road, and you’ll likely overshoot your goal! If you fail to plan you’re actually planning to fail. OR: To put it more positively, planning your project is the number one strategy that will help you to complete your PhD successfully. Good planning can save your PhD! 

If you’re still unconvinced, here are a few more reasons planning makes all the difference:

• When you plan, you define your project . You make your objectives and your timeline explicit. 
• When you plan you put your project ideas down in writing . That means your project stops existing only in your mind(and thus constantly subject to new whims) and enters the solid state of being fixed on paper. It is now visible for everyone, not least of all your supervisors, so it becomes much easier to discuss your project with them.
• When you plan, you know exactly what you’re aiming for , so you can move towards it more easily. If you don’t know what your project is about, you’ll end up doing a lot of extra work here and there that won’t be relevant in the end.
• When you have a plan and project goals, you have a benchmark to track your progress and your achievements against. Your progress becomes tangible and measurable for you and those around you. 
• Planning will give you clarity . It’ll help you to focus on the most important things. PhD students often describe that planning their project helped them to discover many things they had not thought of before – in terms of how to carry out their project. 
• Planning will enable you to track your progress , help you to detect delays and make adjustments before it is too late.  
• Planning is a great way to calm your nerves . The uncertainty and anxiety will be gone: you will always know where you are with your PhD and never succumb to panic attacks or sleepless nights again. 
• We can’t overstate the importance of the final point: Having a plan means you know when you are done . You know when you cracked the code and completed all the tasks you set out to.

When should I do the planning for my PhD project?

Ideally, you have an initial project plan or at least outlined a draft a few weeks into your PhD. Yes, we know what you’re thinking now: “I’m not living in an ideal world!” So the answer is simple: ANYTIME! 

Yes, you can work on the planning of your project any time in your PhD. You’re only exempted if you have a shiny-new-10-page-project-plan in your drawer right now. But seriously, whether you are in the first year or third year of your PhD, or even with just a few months left, it’s never too early or too late. Simply start now and draw up a plan for the remaining time of your PhD. If you haven’t downloaded it already, get our Quick-guide: Planning your PhD project to get you started now.

Check the regulations of your university or graduate school programme because some require you to hand-in a project plan at a particular point in time! But even if yours does NOT we always suggest you to plan – simply for your own well-being and that of your PhD. 

How do I plan? I don’t have much experience…

No surprise here, you are in good company! In spite of its importance, only a few PhD students know how to plan a project from scratch. But, don’t despair! You’re smart and we can give you a boost with our Quick-guide: Planning your PhD project .

Our guide’s initial steps will prompt you with a few crucial questions and decisions to get you started. It shows you how to sketch out some preliminary answers, which you can then develop into a fully-fledged project plan! Something that you can share with your supervisors (and everyone else involved) to steer your project. 

Are you longing for more support with the planning of your PhD? We’re on a continuous journey to improve our offers for you and offer a  free PhD Webinar  that will give you further hints on how to plan your PhD project.  Sign up now ,  so you don’t miss out on this opportunity and we’ll give you a shout when the next one is available.

We know that planning can’t prevent every disaster in your PhD and it can’t remedy all your problems. But, it’s the very best way forward and will make your PhD and your life a whole lot easier! No more panicking or nightmares! A detailed plan for your project will calm your mind! The worries about your PhD won’t go away unless you tackle them – so grab the bull by the horns! 

Related resources:

• Smart Academics Blog #5: How to get started with writing papers?  
• Smart Academics Blog #36: 5 tips to get a paper accepted this year  
• Smart Academics Blog #55: 7 signs you need help with your PhD
• Smart Academics Blog #60: Are you delayed with your PhD?
• Smart Academics Blog #85: Planning your PhD workday
• Smart Academics Blog #112: PhD project-planning quick-start
• Smart Academics Blog #113: Identify your top PhD priority to boost your progress
• QUICK GUIDE: Planning your PhD project
• Expert Guide: 5 reasons why PhD students delay and how to avoid
• Free PhD Webinar: Sign-up!

More information: 

Do you want to successfully complete your PhD study? If so, please sign up to receive our free guides .    

© 2020 Tress Academic

#PhD, #PhDProject, #PhDPlanning, #ProjectPlan,  #DoctoralStudies

• Aims and Objectives – A Guide for Academic Writing
• Doing a PhD

One of the most important aspects of a thesis, dissertation or research paper is the correct formulation of the aims and objectives. This is because your aims and objectives will establish the scope, depth and direction that your research will ultimately take. An effective set of aims and objectives will give your research focus and your reader clarity, with your aims indicating what is to be achieved, and your objectives indicating how it will be achieved.

Introduction

There is no getting away from the importance of the aims and objectives in determining the success of your research project. Unfortunately, however, it is an aspect that many students struggle with, and ultimately end up doing poorly. Given their importance, if you suspect that there is even the smallest possibility that you belong to this group of students, we strongly recommend you read this page in full.

This page describes what research aims and objectives are, how they differ from each other, how to write them correctly, and the common mistakes students make and how to avoid them. An example of a good aim and objectives from a past thesis has also been deconstructed to help your understanding.

What Are Aims and Objectives?

Research aims.

A research aim describes the main goal or the overarching purpose of your research project.

In doing so, it acts as a focal point for your research and provides your readers with clarity as to what your study is all about. Because of this, research aims are almost always located within its own subsection under the introduction section of a research document, regardless of whether it’s a thesis , a dissertation, or a research paper .

A research aim is usually formulated as a broad statement of the main goal of the research and can range in length from a single sentence to a short paragraph. Although the exact format may vary according to preference, they should all describe why your research is needed (i.e. the context), what it sets out to accomplish (the actual aim) and, briefly, how it intends to accomplish it (overview of your objectives).

To give an example, we have extracted the following research aim from a real PhD thesis:

Example of a Research Aim

The role of diametrical cup deformation as a factor to unsatisfactory implant performance has not been widely reported. The aim of this thesis was to gain an understanding of the diametrical deformation behaviour of acetabular cups and shells following impaction into the reamed acetabulum. The influence of a range of factors on deformation was investigated to ascertain if cup and shell deformation may be high enough to potentially contribute to early failure and high wear rates in metal-on-metal implants.

Note: Extracted with permission from thesis titled “T he Impact And Deformation Of Press-Fit Metal Acetabular Components ” produced by Dr H Hothi of previously Queen Mary University of London.

Research Objectives

Where a research aim specifies what your study will answer, research objectives specify how your study will answer it.

They divide your research aim into several smaller parts, each of which represents a key section of your research project. As a result, almost all research objectives take the form of a numbered list, with each item usually receiving its own chapter in a dissertation or thesis.

Following the example of the research aim shared above, here are it’s real research objectives as an example:

Example of a Research Objective

• Develop finite element models using explicit dynamics to mimic mallet blows during cup/shell insertion, initially using simplified experimentally validated foam models to represent the acetabulum.
• Investigate the number, velocity and position of impacts needed to insert a cup.
• Determine the relationship between the size of interference between the cup and cavity and deformation for different cup types.
• Investigate the influence of non-uniform cup support and varying the orientation of the component in the cavity on deformation.
• Examine the influence of errors during reaming of the acetabulum which introduce ovality to the cavity.
• Determine the relationship between changes in the geometry of the component and deformation for different cup designs.
• Develop three dimensional pelvis models with non-uniform bone material properties from a range of patients with varying bone quality.
• Use the key parameters that influence deformation, as identified in the foam models to determine the range of deformations that may occur clinically using the anatomic models and if these deformations are clinically significant.

It’s worth noting that researchers sometimes use research questions instead of research objectives, or in other cases both. From a high-level perspective, research questions and research objectives make the same statements, but just in different formats.

Taking the first three research objectives as an example, they can be restructured into research questions as follows:

Restructuring Research Objectives as Research Questions

• Can finite element models using simplified experimentally validated foam models to represent the acetabulum together with explicit dynamics be used to mimic mallet blows during cup/shell insertion?
• What is the number, velocity and position of impacts needed to insert a cup?
• What is the relationship between the size of interference between the cup and cavity and deformation for different cup types?

Difference Between Aims and Objectives

Hopefully the above explanations make clear the differences between aims and objectives, but to clarify:

• The research aim focus on what the research project is intended to achieve; research objectives focus on how the aim will be achieved.
• Research aims are relatively broad; research objectives are specific.
• Research aims focus on a project’s long-term outcomes; research objectives focus on its immediate, short-term outcomes.
• A research aim can be written in a single sentence or short paragraph; research objectives should be written as a numbered list.

How to Write Aims and Objectives

Before we discuss how to write a clear set of research aims and objectives, we should make it clear that there is no single way they must be written. Each researcher will approach their aims and objectives slightly differently, and often your supervisor will influence the formulation of yours on the basis of their own preferences.

Regardless, there are some basic principles that you should observe for good practice; these principles are described below.

Your aim should be made up of three parts that answer the below questions:

• Why is this research required?
• What is this research about?
• How are you going to do it?

The easiest way to achieve this would be to address each question in its own sentence, although it does not matter whether you combine them or write multiple sentences for each, the key is to address each one.

The first question, why , provides context to your research project, the second question, what , describes the aim of your research, and the last question, how , acts as an introduction to your objectives which will immediately follow.

Scroll through the image set below to see the ‘why, what and how’ associated with our research aim example.

Note: Your research aims need not be limited to one. Some individuals per to define one broad ‘overarching aim’ of a project and then adopt two or three specific research aims for their thesis or dissertation. Remember, however, that in order for your assessors to consider your research project complete, you will need to prove you have fulfilled all of the aims you set out to achieve. Therefore, while having more than one research aim is not necessarily disadvantageous, consider whether a single overarching one will do.

Research Objectives

Each of your research objectives should be SMART :

• Specific – is there any ambiguity in the action you are going to undertake, or is it focused and well-defined?
• Measurable – how will you measure progress and determine when you have achieved the action?
• Achievable – do you have the support, resources and facilities required to carry out the action?
• Relevant – is the action essential to the achievement of your research aim?
• Timebound – can you realistically complete the action in the available time alongside your other research tasks?

In addition to being SMART, your research objectives should start with a verb that helps communicate your intent. Common research verbs include:

Table of Research Verbs to Use in Aims and Objectives

Last, format your objectives into a numbered list. This is because when you write your thesis or dissertation, you will at times need to make reference to a specific research objective; structuring your research objectives in a numbered list will provide a clear way of doing this.

To bring all this together, let’s compare the first research objective in the previous example with the above guidance:

Checking Research Objective Example Against Recommended Approach

Research Objective:

1. Develop finite element models using explicit dynamics to mimic mallet blows during cup/shell insertion, initially using simplified experimentally validated foam models to represent the acetabulum.

Checking Against Recommended Approach:

Q: Is it specific? A: Yes, it is clear what the student intends to do (produce a finite element model), why they intend to do it (mimic cup/shell blows) and their parameters have been well-defined ( using simplified experimentally validated foam models to represent the acetabulum ).

Q: Is it measurable? A: Yes, it is clear that the research objective will be achieved once the finite element model is complete.

Q: Is it achievable? A: Yes, provided the student has access to a computer lab, modelling software and laboratory data.

Q: Is it relevant? A: Yes, mimicking impacts to a cup/shell is fundamental to the overall aim of understanding how they deform when impacted upon.

Q: Is it timebound? A: Yes, it is possible to create a limited-scope finite element model in a relatively short time, especially if you already have experience in modelling.

Q: Does it start with a verb? A: Yes, it starts with ‘develop’, which makes the intent of the objective immediately clear.

Q: Is it a numbered list? A: Yes, it is the first research objective in a list of eight.

Mistakes in Writing Research Aims and Objectives

1. making your research aim too broad.

Having a research aim too broad becomes very difficult to achieve. Normally, this occurs when a student develops their research aim before they have a good understanding of what they want to research. Remember that at the end of your project and during your viva defence , you will have to prove that you have achieved your research aims; if they are too broad, this will be an almost impossible task. In the early stages of your research project, your priority should be to narrow your study to a specific area. A good way to do this is to take the time to study existing literature, question their current approaches, findings and limitations, and consider whether there are any recurring gaps that could be investigated .

Note: Achieving a set of aims does not necessarily mean proving or disproving a theory or hypothesis, even if your research aim was to, but having done enough work to provide a useful and original insight into the principles that underlie your research aim.

2. Making Your Research Objectives Too Ambitious

Be realistic about what you can achieve in the time you have available. It is natural to want to set ambitious research objectives that require sophisticated data collection and analysis, but only completing this with six months before the end of your PhD registration period is not a worthwhile trade-off.

3. Formulating Repetitive Research Objectives

Each research objective should have its own purpose and distinct measurable outcome. To this effect, a common mistake is to form research objectives which have large amounts of overlap. This makes it difficult to determine when an objective is truly complete, and also presents challenges in estimating the duration of objectives when creating your project timeline. It also makes it difficult to structure your thesis into unique chapters, making it more challenging for you to write and for your audience to read.

Fortunately, this oversight can be easily avoided by using SMART objectives.

Hopefully, you now have a good idea of how to create an effective set of aims and objectives for your research project, whether it be a thesis, dissertation or research paper. While it may be tempting to dive directly into your research, spending time on getting your aims and objectives right will give your research clear direction. This won’t only reduce the likelihood of problems arising later down the line, but will also lead to a more thorough and coherent research project.

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What are the steps involved to design phd research methods explain about two primary research method commonly used for the phd program.

• PhD Research Methodology Research Design helps in planning the research design and assist you in collecting and analyzing the needed information for your PhD research
• The main objective of Research Design Methodology is to formulate a research problem that requires precise investigation for developing a working thesis
• PhD Methodology Research Design Help follows a well-organized procedure utilized by scientist to drive your study and get a good outcome.

Introduction

The Research Design and Methodology is the integral part of the study that aims to explain how to drive the research and which data analysis method you will use to research. It is a framework that explains various other research theories, assumptions to give a working framework suitable for your study.

The research method includes information such as,

• A framework of research such as assumptions and theories
• Methods and techniques used to enhance the reliability and validity of the research work
• The theoretical orientation of the research
• Justification for choosing this method
• Consideration and limitation of selected research method

Designing your PhD research methods

Preparing a PhD design is the challenging task that involves various steps,

• Defining basis information Qualitative or quantitative

Experts for framing a PhD Research Design & Methodology is based on the data needed to interpret the result of the research. Qualitative data is descriptive and which can be observed not measured. Quantitative data is information about quantities.

• Determine the subject of the experiment

The approach of data collection varies based on different fields of the study and relies on the required information. So, determining the area of study is required to drive the research method. The objective of data collection is to ensure the information and reliable data for statistical analysis, so it is easy to make data-driven decisions for research.

• I dentify the approach of the research methodology

The two different approaches to follow in research method is a qualitative and quantitative approach. The research approach is a plan and procedure that consist of steps of broad assumptions to methods of data collection. Choosing the right data collection method is an important step that can change the fate of the research you carry out.

• Identify sample design

The sample design is a framework that serves as the basis for the selection of the survey sample and can change many other aspects of the survey. Identification of sample design is a more significant step that provides a basic plan and Methodology for selecting the sample.

• Data collection

It is the process of collecting, analyzing, measuring, accurate research using the standard validated technique. Framing PhD Research Methodology is the process of validating the information on target variables involves two Primary Dissertation Research Methods .

• Analysing and interpretation

It is the process of making sense to collect data using various techniques. Data collection is the systematic analysis of recording the information. Data interpretation involves explaining those patterns and trends.

Qualitative research method

Qualitative type of research method focuses on examining the area of study through external factors. This type of research has various ways to collect data from an individual. The primary dissertation research method used are interview, open-ended questions, focus group.  PhD Research Design Consulting Services helps in gaining insight into people’s thought and beliefs around certain behaviour and system.

The three primary dissertation research method used to collect the data are,

• Case study:

The case study is the only standard approach to study the working environment with the help of multiple sources of data. It provides a detailed study of a specific subject like the person, group, event, organization. These case study commonly use in education, clinical and business research. It is the research method that involved a detailed examination of a particular study.

• Observation:

The observation is a data collection method gathered knowledge of the research phenomenon by observing researched phenomenon—one of the simplest methods that do not require any technical knowledge to get results. Scientific controlled observation requires some technical skills to interpret the data. Observation is the main basis of formulating the hypothesis. The main advantage of this method is researchers do not depend on the information provided by the respondent.

Quantitative research methods

• Primary data collection:

It is the approach of data collected by the researcher. This approach allows the researchers to decide what exact variables operationalized in the study. PhD Research Design and Methodology analyze the data using a statistical technique to assess the natural relationship between the variables.

• Secondary data collection:

This approach differs and involves the statistical analysis of data collected by other researchers. It requires selection of publicly involved data sets for research. Secondary data analysis saves time for researchers to assess the information reliable. However, before start using these data’s researchers must build the research question based on the available data.

Data analysis is the process eventually helps to arrive conclusions by proving the hypothesis. Qualitative Research Methodology Editing Helps to frame the objectives that are supposed to measure, explore the relationships between multiple measures.

• Jonker, J., & Pennink, B. (2010). The essence of research methodology: Guide for master and PhD students in management science. Springer Science & Business Media.
• Steyaert, C. (1997). A qualitative methodology for process studies of entrepreneurship: Creating local knowledge through stories. International Studies of Management & Organization, 27(3), 13-33.
• Suri, H. (2011). Purposeful sampling in qualitative research synthesis. Qualitative research journal, 11(2), 63.
• Rutberg, S., & Bouikidis, C. D. (2018). Focusing on the fundamentals: A simplistic differentiation between qualitative and quantitative research. Nephrology Nursing Journal, 45(2), 209-213.
• Williams, C. (2007). Research methods. Journal of Business & Economics Research (JBER), 5(3).

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PhD students earn major NSF graduate research fellowships

Three Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering graduate students have received 2024 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships for their promising quantum and metameterial antennas research.  

This year, the NSF awarded 27 students from CU Boulder , including 18 from the College of Engineering and Applied Science with the 2024 graduate research fellowship, a prestigious award recognizing students in a wide variety of STEM disciplines, exploring some of the most pressing issues of our time. 

Each recipient will receive three years of financial support, including an annual stipend of $37,000, as well as professional development and research opportunities.

Aliza Siddiqui

Advisor: Joshua Combes Lab: Combes Group

Bio: Siddiqui is a first-year PhD student with a research concentration in Quantum Engineering and Architecture. She graduated from Louisiana State University, home of the Tigers, with a degree in computer science.

My proposal involves creating a new benchmarking/testing framework for the next generation of error-corrected quantum computers. Given the noise of physical qubits, recent work has suggested combining the state of several physical qubits to create a logical qubit. I will collaborate with Dr. Josh Combes and Sandia National Labs for my PhD. Through this work, the quantum community will have a tool-kit that will help us determine how well a quantum computer performs, diagnose what and where the issues are and create solutions to realize full-scale, error-corrected quantum systems. 

Dylan Meyer

Advisor: Scott Diddams Lab: Frequency Comb & Quantum Metrology Lab

Bio: Meyer is a first-year PhD student in the FCQM group. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Alabama in Electrical Engineering.

My research proposal is the development of highly stable and robust millimeter wave time and frequency (T&F) transfer, supporting T&F transfer between atomic clocks. T&F transfer is used to create clock networks that are essential for positioning and navigation, such as GPS and essential infrastructure like the Internet and power grid. These technologies support up to $1 billion dollars of trade and financial transactions a day. In addition, these clock networks are capable of fundamental science experiments capable of probing new and exciting questions related to physics and geodesy.

Advisors:  Cody Scarborough and Robert MacCurdy Lab Groups:  EMRG and MAClab

Bio:  Pham received their Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Electrical & Computer Engineering from the University of Oklahoma, where he conducted research on RF filters. After graduating, he worked for 3 years in industry as an RF engineer developing radar systems. He will begin his PhD this fall 2024. 

My research proposal is on the application of multi-material additive manufacturing techniques for metamaterial antennas. Metamaterial antennas are capable of more sophisticated capabilities and unique form-factors compared to conventional antennas. By leveraging multi-material additive manufacturing, there are more degrees-of-freedom for the shape and composition of the metamaterials. This research would enhance the design flexibility and capabilities of next-generation antennas to meet the growing performance demands of future wireless systems.

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The series contains three individual workshops which can work as a sequence or as standalone sessions. They are open to all graduate students, and space is limited to 20 participants per session. Bring a writing project-in-progress that you can work on during the timed sessions and learn how to create better writing habits for yourself.

Join us for a special series with Dr. Emily Troscianko, a visiting scholar with the English department at UCSB this year, as well as a coach, writer, researcher, and creator of Oxford University’s first writing program. The series is intended to work as a sequence, so please feel free to sign up for all three but they will also work well as standalone sessions. They are open to all graduate students, and space is limited to 20 participants per session. Bring a writing project-in-progress that you can work on during our timed sessions and be prepared to be without your phone, social media, and email for the duration, including the breaks. A communal phone tin will be provided!   These events are sponsored by UCSB’s Graduate Division in collaboration with the Office of Research and the Literature and Mind Center’s Trauma-Informed Pedagogy project. They will contribute to campus-wide learning about how to help the classroom be more conducive to learning and thinking.  As such, they will involve information-gathering from event participants after signing up for an event, as well as at the start and end of the event. You can read more about the project  here . If you decide to register for one or more events, you will be asked to read the information carefully before deciding whether to take part. Please  contact Emily  if you have any questions.

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Devin Bowes uses wastewater-based epidemiology to advance environmental justice, health equity

April 24, 2023  | Erin Bluvas,  [email protected]

Devin Bowes ’ expertise lies at the intersection of human and environmental health. The assistant professor of environmental health sciences first became interested in the field when she was studying nutrition and dietetics at West Chester University of Pennsylvania.

“I discovered my passion for these areas during my undergraduate studies when I first started to learn about community nutrition and food insecurity,” Bowes says. “I grew very fascinated with how our overall health and well-being is, in part, a function of our surrounding environment, and how these circumstances disproportionately impact certain populations.”

During her doctoral program at Arizona State University, she expanded on these interests as a graduate research assistant with the Biodesign Centers for Environmental Health Engineering and Health Through Microbiomes. These experiences, coupled with her coursework in biological design, led Bowes to develop expertise in leveraging community wastewater to understand human behavior, exposures, activity and overall health at the population level.

This emerging, interdisciplinary field – which became more widely known during the COVID-19 pandemic due to its usefulness in monitoring local virus levels and outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2 – is known as wastewater-based epidemiology. It involves the analysis of various chemical (e.g., pesticides, drugs) and biological (e.g., infectious diseases) agents in community wastewater to assess trends in near real-time.

Bowes’ work uses the methodologies offered by wastewater-based epidemiology while adopting an environmental justice and health equity lens. She was inspired to incorporate these perspectives into her work when conducting research as a graduate student.

“The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted clear vulnerabilities within our public health infrastructure that exacerbated health disparities,” Bowes says. “In a year-long, neighborhood-level study using wastewater-based epidemiology to monitor trends of SARS-CoV-2 across a city, we learned that wastewater not only served as an early warning indicator of disease presence, but it could also identify hotspots of infection in areas where clinical surveillance could not reach, yet, infection rates were extremely high.”

After her 2022 graduation, Bowes continued her research at the Biodesign Institute as a postdoctoral research scholar. She gained another year of training as a postdoctoral associate at Boston University’s Center on Forced Displaced, where she focused on using wastewater-based epidemiology in migrant populations, before accepting her first tenure-track appointment at the Arnold School.

The overall culture and humble nature felt very supportive, with a tangible collective investment in the growth and success of the school, including a commitment to honoring diversity, equity and inclusion.

She was drawn to the school’s international reputation for academic scholarship and the welcoming environment. Another important factor was the opportunity to join the inaugural cohort of the FIRST FIRRE Program, which included three other faculty members from the Arnold School and the College of Nursing, whose research areas focus on health equity.

“Devin’s unique area of focus on wastewater biosurveillence enables her to expand our knowledge of food insecurity at a population level, as she has developed unique nutritional biomarkers that enable the assessment of the effectiveness of community outreach on health and nutrition in disadvantaged communities often located in food deserts,” says Geoff Scott , chair of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences. “This greatly supports our research efforts on Environmental Justice Strong -related community engagement, which is a hallmark of research focus in our department.”

“The overall culture and humble nature felt very supportive, with a tangible collective investment in the growth and success of the school, including a commitment to honoring diversity, equity and inclusion,” says Bowes “Students are actively engaged in the community and demonstrate remarkable potential for success and continued global impact in their future endeavors.”

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RIT and UR partner to create accelerated graduate degree pathways for education and counseling students

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Eligible students can begin their journey in these new accelerated degree pathways starting fall 2024.

Rochester Institute of Technology’s College of Liberal Arts and University of Rochester’s Warner School of Education have established new 3+2 and 4+1 admissions agreements , providing RIT undergraduate students with expedited pathways to launch their careers in teaching, higher education, or counseling. These agreements streamline the process for eligible students to earn both their bachelor’s and master’s degrees within a five-year timeframe.

In the 3+2 program, RIT students admitted and enrolled through this pathway will complete all required coursework for undergraduate majors in three years. This paves the way for a smooth transition to the Warner School’s mental health counseling and school counseling master’s programs. The first year at the Warner School concurrently fulfills the final year of their bachelor’s degree.

Similarly, the 4+1 program offers RIT undergraduate students the opportunity to finish all coursework for their undergraduate major within four years as planned. However, students in qualifying bachelor’s degree programs at RIT can also begin graduate-level coursework in their fourth year, earning six credits toward their master’s degree in either higher education or a teacher preparation program at the Warner School.

“This partnership represents an exciting opportunity to enrich the student experience at RIT,” said John Smithgall , assistant dean of the College of Liberal Arts. “These programs play a crucial role in expanding students’ perspectives about what they can achieve in terms of their educational and career aspirations. This is particularly significant in dismantling barriers and stereotypes about certain professions, empowering students to pursue their passions and make significant contributions to their chosen fields.”

Under the terms of the agreement, RIT students who meet the Warner School’s admissions requirements and maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.25 in their third year for the 3+2 program and fourth year for the 4+1 program can obtain both degrees in five years. Moreover, students will benefit from tuition scholarships toward their qualifying graduate degree programs at the Warner School.

“We are thrilled to partner with RIT in offering these innovative admissions pathways,” says Sarah Peyre, dean of the Warner School. “This collaboration underscores our commitment to providing students with accessible and accelerated pathways to pursue their passions for teaching, higher education, and counseling. By combining our expertise and resources, we aim to empower students to excel in their academic journey and make meaningful contributions to their communities.”

RIT’s College of Liberal Arts Interim Dean Kelly Norris Martin adds, “We have an incredibly diverse community of students in the College of Liberal Arts who all have unique visions for their futures. Through this new partnership, we’re able to expand the opportunities available to our students so they can follow their passions. Additionally, these new educational pathways can better prepare our students to fill the increased need for teachers and counselors in our communities.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, job opportunities for counselors and teachers are expected to increase through 2031. Whether individuals aspire to work in a K-12 school or clinical setting, or at the higher education level, RIT can provide students with a head start in becoming specialized educators or counselors. RIT’s culture of innovation and forward-thinking use of technology equips students to be adept at navigating and applying technological learning resources and tools to help their future students and clients excel.

From regional K-12 schools to top higher education and healthcare institutions, the Warner School’s graduate programs further prepare students to apply their comprehensive insights in classrooms, clinics, postsecondary institutions and communities worldwide to lead change for all. For more than 65 years, the Warner School has advanced the fields of education and counseling through innovative theories, experiences and leadership.

For more information about the accelerated pathways to careers in teaching, counseling and higher education, go to the Warner School’s partnerships program page or RIT’s College of Liberal Arts website.

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This is a campuswide week of events, lectures, and volunteer opportunities designed to educate and inspire action related to environmental justice, climate, and nature-based solutions. This year’s theme is Restore & Regenerate.

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Six from Penn elected 2024 AAAS Fellows

Researchers from the school of arts & sciences, school of engineering and applied science, perelman school of medicine, wharton school, school of nursing, and annenberg school for communication join a class of scientists, engineers, and innovators spanning 24 scientific disciplines..

Six faculty researchers representing six University of Pennsylvania schools have been elected 2024 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellows. They are among more than 500 researchers honored for their “scientifically and socially distinguished achievements,” according to the AAAS.

Since 1874, the scientific society aimed at advancing science, engineering, and innovation has annually named a class of fellows.

Penn’s new AAAS fellows are:

Dolores Albarracín is the Alexandra Heyman Nash University Professor, a Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor with appointments in the Annenberg School for Communication , School of Arts & Sciences , School of Nursing , and Wharton School , and the director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center ’s Communication Science Division . As a social psychologist who studies social cognition, attitudes, and behavioral change, Albarracín has published six books and nearly 200 journal articles. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, Association for Psychological Science, Society for Experimental Social Psychology, and American Academy of Political and Social Science and the editor of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Attitudes and Social Cognition . The Society of Social and Personality Psychology, of which Albarracín is past president, recognized her with the Award for Outstanding Scientific Contributions to Research on Attitudes and Social Influence in 2018 and the Diener Award in Social Psychology in 2020. She is being recognized by the AAAS for her contributions to social psychology, public health, and particularly the spread of infectious diseases worldwide and for the effective communication of science to the public.

Tony Cai is the Daniel H. Silberberg Professor of Statistics and Data Science at Wharton and president-elect of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. He has made significant and groundbreaking contributions to advancing comprehensive theory and methodologies for nonparametric function estimation, high-dimensional statistics, and statistical machine learning. These include the development of block thresholding methodologies for wavelet regression, novel adaptation theory and methodologies for estimation and confidence intervals in a broad class of nonparametric and high-dimensional problems, as well as innovative methodologies and optimality theories for statistical estimation under privacy, communication, and computational constraints. His work has a wide range of applications in the analysis of high-dimensional data. Such data lies at the core of many contemporary big data applications, and his work paves important paths toward practical solutions. He is a member of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, American Statistical Association, and International Chinese Statistical Association. Among many honors, Cai also received the COPSS Award in 2008. The AAAS Fellowship is in recognition of Cai’s contributions to the field of mathematical statistics, particularly for developing novel methodologies and optimality theories in high-dimensional statistics and statistical machine learning.

Noam A. Cohen is the Ralph Butler Professor for Medical Research and the director of rhinology research in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology at the Perelman School of Medicine . He is also an adjunct member of The Monell Chemical Senses Center and a staff surgeon at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center. His research interests include host-microbe interactions in the upper airway with a focus on sinonasal innate defenses focusing on airway taste receptors and mucociliary clearance, microbial biofilms, solitary chemosensory cells, and the development of novel sinonasal topical antimicrobial therapies. His current efforts focus on correlating the genetics of bitter taste receptor functionality in the context of chronic rhinosinusitis and the therapeutic implications of stimulating sinonasal bitter taste receptors to activate production of local nitric oxide or release of antimicrobial peptides as alternatives for conventional antibiotics in the management of acute and chronic sinus infections. He has written more than 200 publications, given multiple presentations worldwide, and has been principal investigator on NIH and VA grants and industry-sponsored studies. Cohen is being recognized for his contributions to mucosal immunology in the context of human upper airway diseases.

Michael Lampson , a professor of biology in the School of Arts & Sciences, studies cell division and more specifically the cell biology of meiotic drive—how certain genetic elements “cheat” to increase their representation—as well centromere inheritance through the germline, optogenetic tools for cell biology, and the mechanics of cell division. He has published in Nature Cell Biology , the Journal of Cell Biology , Cell , Current Biology , Journal of the American Chemical Society , and many other academic journals. He joined Penn’s faculty in 2007 and in 2008 was named a Searle Scholar, a program that makes grants to selected universities and research centers to support the independent research of exceptional young faculty in the biomedical sciences and chemistry. Lampson is being recognized by the AAAS for contributions to cell biology in the biological sciences, particularly for advancing scientists’ understanding of chromosome segregation in cell division and inheritance through the germline.

Edward A. Stadtmauer is the Roseman, Tarte, Harrow, and Shaffer Families’ President’s Distinguished Professor of Medicine and director of Hematologic Malignancies Research in the Division of Hematology-Oncology at the Perelman School of Medicine. His research focuses on finding new treatment approaches to improve the long-term survival of patients with leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma and those undergoing bone marrow transplants. He has been the principal investigator of the Penn Medicine Core Center of the NIH-sponsored Blood and Marrow Clinical Trials Network for 23 years and is the chair of the steering committee. His research has appeared in premier peer-reviewed journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine , Journal of Clinical Oncology , Science , JAMA , Nature Medicine , Lancet Oncology , Science Translational Medicine , and Blood . His work has ranged from conducting the definitive study of autologous bone marrow transplant for breast cancer to pioneering clinical trials with cellular immunotherapy, CRISPR genetic engineering, and vaccination for blood cancers. Stadtmauer is being recognized for contributions to medical oncology and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and cellular therapies for malignant diseases.

Shu Yang is a Joseph Bordogna Professor of Engineering and Applied Science in the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and chair of the Department of Materials Science & Engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. Yang is interested in the synthesis, fabrication, and assembly of soft and hybrid materials; dynamic tuning of their sizes, shapes, and assembled structures; and use of geometry to create highly flexible, super-conformable, shape-changing, and energy-efficient materials. She worked at Bell Laboratories and at Lucent Technologies as a technical staff member before joining Penn. She is a recipient of the American Chemical Society Langmuir lectureship, the Inventor of the Year award from the Penn Center for Innovation, and the George H. Heilmeier Faculty Award for Excellence in Research from Penn Engineering. Yang is also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Materials Research Society, American Chemical Society, American Physical Society, Royal Society of Chemistry, and National Academy of Inventors. Yang is being recognized by the AAAS for contributions to soft materials, particularly for developing novel approaches to the synthesis and assembly of multi-functional soft composite materials.

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Campus & Community

Penn celebrates operation and benefits of largest solar power project in Pennsylvania

Solar production has begun at the Great Cove I and II facilities in central Pennsylvania, the equivalent of powering 70% of the electricity demand from Penn’s academic campus and health system in the Philadelphia area.

Education, Business, & Law

Investing in future teachers and educational leaders

The Empowerment Through Education Scholarship Program at Penn’s Graduate School of Education is helping to prepare and retain teachers and educational leaders.

Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

‘The Illuminated Body’ fuses color, light, and sound

A new Arthur Ross Gallery exhibition of work by artist Barbara Earl Thomas features cut-paper portraits reminiscent of stained glass and an immersive installation constructed with intricately cut material lit from behind.

25 years of ‘LOVE’

The iconic sculpture by pop artist Robert Indiana arrived on campus in 1999 and soon became a natural place to come together.

How Bears plan to fund Chicago stadium project, and how much it will cost taxpayers

Getting down to the bottom line for a potential bears stadium project in chicago, by alex shapiro • published 4 hours ago.

The Bears announced how they plan to fund a potential new stadium project in Chicago, and how much they believe it will cost.

Bears COO and executive vice president of stadium development Karen Murphy said in a presentation on Wednesday that the team expects the entire stadium project to cost $4.7 billion: $3.2 for the stadium itself and just over $300 million for the infrastructure required to open it, then $1.2 billion for two other phases of development.

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Last month, the team confirmed it would contribute $2 billion dollars to fund the majority of the project. On Wednesday, a slide in the presentation clarified that number would be closer to $2.025 billion dollars. After that, the team would look to an NFL stadium program for a $300 million loan. That leaves a $900 million gap for the stadium financing itself. The Bears plan has them looking to a bond mechanism in the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority program to make up the difference.

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The Bears said a 2% hotel tax that is already in place for the ISFA should be able to make up the $900 million they need from public funds.

There wasn’t a clear answer as to where the team would get the $300 million for the infrastructure, however. Murphy said the team is still working with the state and looking into different funding sources.

If the team gets the public funding needed to open the stadium, they said there will be two more phases of development requiring public money: one to maximize infrastructure for the stadium and surrounding campus totaling $510 million, and another phase for “optional infrastructure to enhance the campus, improve circulation, and maximize public economic benefits,” totaling $665 million. Add up all three phases plus the IFSA funding, and it's nearly $2.4 billion in public money.

Chicago Bears

Caleb Williams had clear, important goal for vital pre-draft dinner with Bears veterans

7 big takeaways from the Chicago Bears new stadium proposal

Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson said on Wednesday that the Bears’ new plan to build a stadium in Chicago will not raise taxes on city residents.

“I’m going to repeat that one more time to make sure that everybody gets it,” Johnson said after the announcement. “This project will result in no new taxes on the residents of Chicago.”

It's still not clear where some of the funding will come from. Additionally, the Bears indicated they could potentially look for city money as well as state and federal dollars.

The Bears bought 326 acres of land in Arlington Heights last year, and previously announced plans to build a new stadium there. But contentious negotiations about property taxes in the suburbs have become an obstacle for that plan. Earlier this year the team said it was switching its focus away from Arlington Heights back to the city.

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