'Profkip': a conversation about PhD supervision

Supervising PhD candidates is an important part of the job description for postdocs, assistant professors, associate professors, and full professors. The quality of supervision is crucial to the professional growth and well-being of PhD candidates, and therefore to the quality of their work. In some cases, however, academics supervise so many PhD candidates that the quality of supervision suffers. These profkippen[1] are both the outcome and the catalyst of an underlying problem: the unfair distribution of opportunities and funding in Dutch academia.

Causes

In the Dutch science system, grants are used mainly to hire PhD candidates. But the system also leads to inequality: someone who receives a Veni grant from the Dutch Research Council is more likely to also receive a Vidi grant later, and this trend continues throughout their career. As a result, a small proportion of academics receive more and more funding, and therefore supervise more PhD candidates. In addition, many assistant and associate professors do not have the right to confer doctorates on their own PhD candidates, forcing them to involve a full professor in the supervision. That full professor may therefore inadvertently become a profkip.

Limes promovendi

Profkippen have an impact on academics at every stage of their career. PhD candidates do not receive the supervision they need, assistant and associate professors have fewer opportunities to supervise PhD candidates, and PhD supervisors (often full professors) face heavy workloads. The Young Academy therefore proposes establishing a limes promovendi: a reasonable cap on the number of PhD candidates supervised by one person simultaneously. This will promote equal opportunities for PhD candidates, assistant professors, and associate professors while reducing the workload for full professors. In addition, it will give more academics an opportunity to share their ideas, fostering innovation within the research community.

Talk about the profkip

The Young Academy has launched the Profkip campaign to start a conversation about better supervision, greater equality of opportunity, and less work pressure. We invite academics to talk about the following topics within their own institutions: the limes promovendi; recognising PhD supervision as a core task and evaluating the quality of supervision; the grant system and how to improve it. This visual offers a starting point. Discuss it with everyone involved in doctoral programmes, from PhD candidates to full professors and HR departments.

On May 18, we are organizing an event at the Trippenhuis in Amsterdam to discuss PhD supervision. Come and join the conversation. 

Register here

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