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The response of the ILLC Management Team
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About
The members of ILLC's PhD Programme eValuation Committee (PVC) have one primary responsibility:
- To evaluate and maintain the working conditions and quality of the ILLC PhD programme.
A new PVC with new members is set up every year.
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Annual PVC Meetings
In order to ensure the quality of the ILLC PhD programme, the PhD Programme eValuation Committee (PVC) performs an extensive annual evaluation of the PhD programme at our institute. Every year the ILLC asks all its PhD candidates to fill in a confidential questionnaire and holds a confidential interview with all PhD candidates in their second year. PhD candidates who are not in their second year are also welcome to request an interview with the PVC. The committee present at the interviews consists of two staff members and one member of the ILLC administration, who also takes notes. The staff members of the PVC are chosen such that they are not involved in the supervision of the PhD candidate in question.
The main goal of the PVC questionnaires and interviews is to find out what works well and what could be improved in the ILLC's PhD Programme in order to enable PhD candidates to get the most out of their time here.
The PVC is not intended to evaluate the work of the PhD candidates, but rather the quality of the ILLC as a research and education environment. In addition, the committee aims to provide support to PhD candidate that may experience difficulties. For this reason, in the questionnaires and during the meetings the committee encourages you to share any worries, wishes, complaints, or suggestions you may have. All with strict confidentiality.
Some of the issues that may be brought up are: Do the facilities meet your needs? Is supervision working out? Do you need help finding the right colleagues and getting sufficient feedback from colleagues in the field, within the ILLC or outside? Are you aware of events in your line of research? Are rules and regulations concerning the ILLC and the PhD research clear?
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Annual PVC Report
The PVC produces a short report of every interview. This report is confidential, and will never be shown to any of the staff members involved in your supervision without explicit permission from the PhD candidate in question. The report may be reused in future interviews with the PhD candidate, to see how things have developed since the last interview.
Apart from the personal report, the PVC makes a general report after each annual round of questionnaires and meetings. This report contains a summary of that year's findings. Great care is taken to ensure that no personal details make it into this report. This report serves to advise the director of the ILLC on more general improvements or changes.
The general reports and response of the ILLC director to it are publicly available. A link to the latest report and the ILLC's director's response to it can be found at the top of this page.