PhD stories

‘I’ve faced the nearly stereotypical PhD experience: mental health challenges’

Students or researchers? PhD candidates fall into a category of their own. What is it like to navigate the sometimes lonely road towards a doctoral degree? In this monthly series, we put the PhDs of the University of Twente in the limelight. This episode gives the stage to Rob Bemthuis, a young academic from the Pervasive Systems Research Group.
PhD stories

‘Everyone warned me that PhD is a lonely job’

Students or researchers? PhD candidates fall into a category of their own. What is it like to navigate the sometimes lonely road towards a doctoral degree? In this monthly series, we put the PhDs of the University of Twente in the limelight. This episode gives the stage to Anouk Geenen, a young scientist from the Human Centred Design group.
Spotlight

Shine a light

‘There are a lot of lonely people and I want to help as many as possible,’ says Sefora Tunc, UT PhD candidate and founder of ‘ibilight’. Her start-up has one goal: to fight loneliness of elderly people. With light. And it is now entering the market.
PhD stories
PhD stories, episode 1: Juliane Schillinger

‘At some point, you will get frustrated with your research’

Students or researchers? PhD candidates fall into a category of their own. What is it like to navigate the sometimes lonely road towards a doctoral degree? In this monthly series, we put the PhDs of the University of Twente in the limelight. This very first episode gives the stage to Juliane Schillinger, a young scientist at the BMS department of Technology, Policy and Society.
What U think

Rolling in the deep

In this opinion article, I would like to respond to the recent piece written by a fellow doctoral candidate of the UT, Diana Garcia-Gonzalez. Above all, I would like to thank Diana for sharing her side of the story with the community. At the same time, I would like to take the opportunity to clarify some potential misunderstandings or misconceptions about what has been communicated or what has been done by P-NUT’s Include-U project.
What U think

Hello from the other side

I am writing this text as a reaction to an article recently published on U-Today. The title stated; ‘PhDs don’t feel connected to the university’. The piece only quotes one side of the story; the side of P-NUT’s study. With this text, I would like to share my impressions on this piece and share my side of the story — as my experience as a UT PhD is very different from the one portrayed in the previous piece.
News
Include-U platform

‘PhDs don’t feel connected to the university’

P-NUT (PhD Network of the University of Twente) has started Include-U, a project to facilitate inclusion of international doctoral candidates at the UT. As its first step, P-NUT conducted research into experiences of international PhDs. ‘Based on these interviews, we see there’s a problem with inclusion. The sense of belonging to the UT is missing.’
News
Winners of the (PhD) Best Supervisor Award

‘Don’t forget that PhDs are human beings’

UT researchers Anna Sperotto and Massimo Sartori are joint winners of the first edition of the (PhD) Best Supervisor Award. ‘As a supervisor, you need to understand that your student is a whole person, not a machine producing academic papers.’
News

P-NUT: ‘Working overtime is considered the norm’

‘The university should be more proactive, not just extinguish fires,’ says P-NUT, the PhD Network of the University of Twente. It’s their reaction to the latest Arbo Unie’s Annual Review 2019, which also mentions the recommendation to ‘offer PhD students readily accessible, ongoing support’.
Campus life
The first 1.5 meter PhD defense at the UT

‘We will follow the rules’

‘This is strange, isn’t it?’ whispers somebody in the audience. It is ‘strange’ indeed. After all, it hasn’t been done before. Today was the first official 1.5 meter PhD defense at the University of Twente.
News

Half of PhDs report mental health issues due to corona

The PhD Network of the University of Twente (P-NUT) has conducted a survey to assess the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on UT doctoral candidates. Its results show that 50% of them expect delays due to mental health issues and that 75% of the respondents are less productive working from home.
Business & Career

Goed moment voor bezinning

Het academisch jaar begint langzamerhand tot een eind te komen. We zitten nog steeds in lockdown. Sommige dingen lopen door, andere kunnen (of nog niet). Dit zou wel eens een goed moment voor wat bezinning zijn.
News
PhD researchers worry about extension of deadlines

‘It is stressful, there are so many uncertainties’

The corona crisis has put research on hold. This impacts all science, but especially PhDs and young researchers are concerned about the situation. Many share the same fear: not being able to finish their research on time. ‘Most PhDs worry about the situation. None of them know if they will be allowed to extend their deadlines,’ says the PhD Network of the University of Twente (P-NUT).
Science

‘There are too many disturbing stories’

Rape, physical abuse, no legal protection. Beza Nisrane has heard stories of such traumatic experiences from all the women she interviewed for her PhD research. Today she is defending her thesis and hopes that it can help these women.
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