News

‘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.
News

PhD Day: ‘We want to be honest about how things really are’

‘It’s easy for PhDs to become isolated, to drown in research. Through this event, we want to show them that there is support and many opportunities,’ says P-NUT president Roberto Cruz as he describes the upcoming PhD/PDEng Day, held on the 21st of November in DesignLab.
Science
PhD research on why people help the police

‘If they participate once, they are likely to do it again’

If regular citizens collaborate with the police, they can help to fight crime. However, it is unclear what motivates people to do so. PhD candidate Wendy Schreurs aimed to uncover these reasons in her research. She even used her grandmother in one of her experiments. Schreurs is presenting her findings during her PhD defense today.
News

Nieuw volgsysteem promovendi

De UT neemt vanaf 1 april het promovendivolgsysteem Hora Finita in gebruik. De opvolger van ProDoc moet de administratie van het promotietraject completer, overzichtelijker en handiger maken.
Science

‘Clients are happy with care before and after childbirth’

Researcher Cherelle van Stenus has set out to find out how satisfied women are with obstetric and neonatal healthcare in Overijssel. Today, on the day of her PhD defense, she has the answer: ‘The clients are very happy with the care they receive.’
Science

Device for DNA testing at crime scenes

A device that would allow the police to screen for DNA samples directly at crime scenes – that was the focus of Brigitte Bruijns’ doctoral research. Although she didn’t create a prototype of the device – due to lack of time and funding -, she is confident it is possible. The forensic scientist is defending her PhD thesis at the UT on Friday.
Science

‘Science is not just an opinion’

You might know Wytske Versteeg as the author of award winning novels. As it happens, she is also a PhD candidate at the University of Twente. Today she is defending her doctoral thesis which explores how people treat science in comparison to other knowledge sources.
Science
Flexibility of Master’s programmes under the microscope

‘Learning is my main spare time activity’

Nelleke van Adrichem-Rotteveel is not your typical PhD candidate. She’s conducted her doctoral research on ‘flexibility and coherence of Master’s programmes’ only in her spare time. Which is why it took her ten years of hard work to complete her thesis which she is defending today.
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