Project PhD: The Path to a Successful Doctorate

Aims

This workshop focuses on the critical elements for a successful doctoral journey: Which mindsets, tools, and processes make a real difference on the way to a PhD? We concentrate on three areas: The efficient organization of tasks and notes, the productive communication with supervisors and the research community, and the structured reading and writing of academic papers. In each area, we will reflect on effective mindsets, tools, and workflows. The goal is for each participant to take away at least three specific ideas on how to substantially improve their own approach.

Content

Organisation of tasks & notes:
• Tools and processes for practical and effective task management
• Use of modern knowledge management methods in research

Productive exchange:
• Approaches to getting productive and diverse feedback
• Expanding the scientific network
• Dealing with critical feedback

Reading/writing:
• Daily work routines for highly concentrated work
• Practical tips and tricks for efficient writing
• Strategies for efficient handling of scientific literature
• Finding a balance between pragmatism and perfectionism

Methods

• Theoretical input
• Self-reflection
• Partner and group exercises
• Plenum discussion

Target Group

All Doctoral Candidates of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Faculty of Theology

About the Trainer

Dr. Daniel Friedrich was educated at the FU-Berlin, the University of Heidelberg and Oxford University. He earned a PhD in philosophy from the ANU in Australia and then worked as a Post-Doc at the HU-Berlin. He has published papers on philosophy of mind, metaethics and applied ethics. His workshops focus on project-, time- and self-management for PhD students.

Workload

Total student workload of 30 hours, composed of 16 hours spent in the workshop and 14 hours of post workshop assignments.

Feature

This course is reserved for doctoral candidates of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Faculty of Theology.

Once registration is open, applications will be collected for 24 hours and course places allocated by lot. All registrations received after the initial 24h period will be put on a waiting list and assigned on a first come, first served basis.

Course places/places on the waiting list will be confirmed by e-mail. Course registrations can only be canceled before the registration period ends (send an e-mail to grace@unibas.ch). Full course attendance is mandatory. Participants who fail to attend a course without prior notification or withdraw after the registration deadline are subject to a fee of CHF 30. In addition, participants who cancel their course registration at a later point in time, are absent without an excuse or do not attend the entire course will, for reasons of fairness, not be considered for course registration in the following semester and will be removed from other courses offered in the same semester. Please find the detailed regulations on the Transferable Skills Homepage.