Minutes for the FID Meeting

Minutes for the FID Meeting

Date:2nd of March 2011
Time: 12.15–13.00
Present:Gabriela Schaad, Erik Lundberg, Jon Williamsson, Niuosha Samani, K-G Svanström, Johan Jakobsson

Chairman: Gabriela Schaad

Secretary: Niuosha Samani
Protocol adjuster: Johan Jakobsson

Approval of Meeting agenda and Minutes

The agenda for the meeting and the Minutes of the previous meeting were approved.

Updates from the various boards

HHDR

Johan reported from the HHDR meeting held on 23rd of Feb. The new admission regulation at Gothenburg University clarifies that admission to PhD studies should not regularly follow a two-stage model. An overarching study concerning the University has been conducted concerning PhD admission and financing. The faculty has written an answer concerning its practices. Furthermore, Johan informed that the current re-organization has given rise toa new committee called “Utbildningnämnden” or “Education Board”comprisingall students at the university, incl. bachelor, master and PhD. At the time of the meeting, the proposed board would only allow for one person representing PhD issues. Based on the somewhat dyadic role of PhD students (both as teachers and students), some concerns have been raised from HHDR and HHGS regarding the impact of these proposed changes on PhD students and the role of PhDs in this committee.

FFN

Erik reported from the FFNmeeting held on 21st of Feb. There was a discussion about the budget and how to finance projects for PhD students. There is a relatively large amount of funds (28,5 MSEK),originating from different projects,whichhas not been used for research so far. The reason for thisis unclear. Regarding PhD positions, there are 10 students that are already “in the system” and most probably will apply for the two announced positions (which gives room for 4 PhDs from lic. to dr.). Regarding other sources of financing,there are3 open positionsin accounting and 1 position in management relating toa project on construction work.Accordingly, 3 students are likely to remain without any source of financing after their licentiate. The decision as to who will get financed will be taken at the FFN meeting in June. Erik also reported that Alexander Styhre will be in charge of the F1 course “The Research Process” next year. However, as it is not clear how many new PhD students will be admitted for next year, F1 courses might not be scheduled for the upcoming year.

IS

K-G reported that the last meeting was satisfying with plentiful participants and good discussions. Firstly, the budget for 2011 was discussed. It was reported that FEK received an invoice from the faculty for 3,9 MSEK. Furthermore, the large amount of unused funds from different projects, which could be used for other possible financing purposes, was discussed. A contract regarding the institution’s development for the remaining period to 30 June 2012 has been set up between the Dean and the new Head of the Department, Freddy Hällsten. New elections will take place in June this year and this autumn the newly elected IS members will take over. There will also be one representative from this committee in the Equal Opportunity Board. In continuation, IS will be meeting twice per term.

Internal FID issues

Regarding FID-succession, Gabriela summed up the current situation. At the annual meeting 9 people have volunteered for the FID board and were approved. The board now needs to constitute itself. A new FFN- representative is needed and also the post ofa chairman of FID is vacant. Erik Lundberg volunteered as the new representative for FFN and Jon Williamsson as a supplement, which was approved by the meeting. The meeting discussed potential candidates for thepost of a Chairman, which however currently remains open. Regarding social activities, there will be a “Chinese food gathering” for all PhD students in business administration on 11th of March.

At the end of the meeting the proposed guidelines for what is an appropriate thesis at both licentiate and doctor level was discussed and commented. The comments mainly concern thelicentiate level and the difficulty of having one article in the reviewing stage, as the period of thesis writing is relatively short. Another difficult situation is for example when astudent decides to write a monograph at thelicentiate level and articlesat the PhD level.

Secretary of the meetingChairman of the meeting

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Niuosha Samani Gabriela Schaad

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Adjusted: Johan Jakobsson