PhD stories

‘PhD is about knowing how to handle failures’

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 Shreyas Harsha, a young scientist at the Photocatalytic Synthesis group.
Science

‘Personal branding is a journey, not a destination’

While coaching top managers, Stefan Scheidt realized that executives needed better personal branding – and so he decided to start a PhD research on the topic. Tomorrow, the doctoral candidate at the University of Twente is defending his thesis. ‘Personal branding is not only about standing out, but also about fitting in.’
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.
Opinion

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.
Opinion

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.
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