This year was no catch-22 year for OsloDocMet (former PhD forum): things happened. Here is the summary of the key important events and happenings to get you up to date, informed and ready to enter the new year in good conscience.
Raise of support funds
Perhaps the most important achievement for PhD candidates this year has been the raise of support funds (“driftmidler”). From 2022, the amount increases from 75.000 NOK to 99.000 NOK for a three-year PhD position. So all PhD candidates who have positions funded by the Ministry/university or the research council and who started their position in 2022, will get 99.000 NOK (33.000 NOK per year) to cover operating expenses. Those employed earlier and less than three years ago, will get an increase depending on how much of the three-year period is left in 2022. Those employed more than three years ago, will not get an increase, unfortunately.
Get in touch with Knut Sverre from the accounting team to find out the exact amount of these funds available to you.
PhD Day 2022
As the year before, PhD day struck the right balance between academically rigorous presentations of vital relevance for PhD candidates and an exquisite dinner for bolstering camaraderie spirit among us doctorates, both newly enrolled and those approaching the end of their PhD journey. As usual, the event took place at the Sentralen and held around 90 participants. In addition to sessions on publication (by Wilfred Admiraal), international excellence (Frederik Thue), literature review (Allen Tadayon), PhD survival (Silje Fekjær) and research communication in mass media (Thorgeir Kolshus), we had a cosy session on being a humanities PhD candidate at OsloMet which sought to expand its disciplinary horizons. Thanks to all participants and professors for their splendid presentations and genuine effort at knowledge transfer.
Next year, another opportunity for quality socialization and networking awaits in an even more intimate format. Make sure to heed e-mails from your OsloMetDoc representative in order to save the date for PhD-night 2023.
SiN Annual General Meeting
SiN (The Association of Doctoral Organisations in Norway) held its annual general meeting (AGM) at UiA in Kristiansand, in late November, with the help of UiAdoc. In addition to the newly elected board, SiN has revised its key focus areas for the next year prioritising supervision matters (supervisor-student relation), mental health and well-being, as well as endorsing internationalisation in higher education in Norway. SiN will also continue its interaction with Eurodoc (European Council of Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers) through a SiN representative.
PhD forum turns into OsloMetDoc
Last but not least, PhD forum is re-inaugurated into OsloMetDoc. A proper answer for our choice will not do without a detour into perennial realism-nominalism debates. As OsloMetDoc head, Stian Brynildsen, puts it saving us a deep polemic, “it’s not that we are moving from democratic ideal of direct representation, it remains the foundation of what we do here at OsloMetDoc. Yet, the PhD forum had that nominalistic ting to it, implying a universal form of democracy unmoored from the historical contingencies in which greek democracy actually came about. As a historian, I felt I could not let this be, pace William of Occam. With a unanimous vote, we went for proper institutional nominal grounding without doing away with reality altogether”. Consider this reinauguration of OsloMetDoc commitment to represent all PhD candidates at the institutional level and beyond it, a very timely correction before the end of the year, indeed.
