The summer break is slowly coming to an end. And just like summer and the semester-free period, it’s time for us – the first doctoral student representatives at MLU Halle-Wittenberg – to say goodbye. We want to do this with a short review of the elections that took place in June 2024. This will be followed by an outlook on the upcoming constituent meeting of our successors and the tasks that await them.

More than a year before this important event for us, we had already given some thought to the following questions: How can we get more people to stand for the doctoral student representatives? How can we finally get representation, especially in the natural sciences? Because, as we have already mentioned on this blog several times, we unfortunately did not have a complete line-up. Many faculties were not staffed at all. We also had to accept a few “losses” during our two-year term of office, so that in the end there were only a few active members left. We did manage to do the important development work – contacting the university management, identifying problems and taking the first steps in the committees, as well as setting up the website and newsletter. But we certainly remained “below our capabilities”, simply because there were too few of us. Read here what we have done over the last two years: LINK

So for the last part of our election period, our top priority was to advertise as much and as intensively as possible, both analog and digital. To this end, we sent emails (several times), put up posters on campus and tried to activate all the channels we had become familiar with over the years. We set ourselves the goal of having all 9 faculties nominate at least one person.

Unfortunately, we have to admit that we were not successful. Only five (!) people, including one who had previously been active in the doctoral student representation, stood for the university elections in June. And again: the natural sciences are not represented. This means that even fewer people now have to represent the up to 2,000 doctoral students at the university. And this is true both in the respective faculties (where there are sometimes enough construction sites), as well as in the Senate and the many working groups and committees to which we are now invited. It remains to be seen whether the networking work (in Central Germany as well as nationwide) can continue in this context.

What could be the possible reasons? First of all, we unfortunately have to admit that we are not yet as widely known as we had hoped and that many professors, graduate centers, colloquia and other “multipliers” have not responded to our inquiries. It is also questionable whether the relevant contacts of doctoral candidates are even aware of our existence – without our involvement. The new doctoral student representation must find other ways to reach its target group. The newsletter (or other forms of digital accessibility) can only be the first steps here.

One reason why we were sometimes very surprised by the low response was that there were often many interested doctoral students present at our get-togethers who made it clear that they wanted to get involved. A frequent question was about the workload and the “rights and duties”. We fear that potential successors were often afraid of a two-year commitment. We will therefore ensure that in future, the promo representation – similar to the student council – is only elected for one year.

Of course, we have given some thought to how we can continue – despite the further reduction in the number of members of our representation. After all, the tasks are not getting any less and the new doctoral student representation is facing many challenges with topics such as the amendment of the WissZvG, the state graduate scholarship and the reorganization of MLU. On the one hand, we will limit ourselves to core issues in future and will no longer be able to be present at every meeting. On the other hand – and this is much more positive – we will accept the offer of some doctoral candidates and involve non-elected members in the work that lies beyond membership in official committees: Our get-together, possible actions and stands as well as this website.

Despite this somewhat difficult starting position, we wish the new doctoral student representatives constituted this week all the best and every success for the next two years. We would also like to invite all doctoral students to get actively involved! The doctoral student council – like the student council – is only elected for one year.

This text was translated with the help of DeepL.

Two years have flown by. And the elections for the next PhD representatives in May of this year are just around the corner. So it’s time to look back on the first term of the first representative body for PhD candidates/students at MLU Halle-Wittenberg: What have we achieved? What remains to be achieved? How did we spend these two years? And how should we continue?

Phase of discovery

When we took up our positions in May 2022, we didn’t really know what work and tasks lay ahead of us. It was clear that we had put ourselves forward for the position because we felt that we – the PhD candidates at MLU – as a special group did not yet have our own voice at the university and that there were also some areas in need of improvement in this career phase. Both nationally – keyword “Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz” – and here at our university. After there had been several initiatives to set up a PhD’s representative body at MLU in the previous years due to this “gap” in the representation of interests, the state of Saxony-Anhalt simply solved the problem in 2021 by changing the legal basis. However, the task description was somewhat vague:”The doctoral representatives shall advise on issues concerning doctoral students and make recommendations to the governing bodies of the university. The faculty council must give the doctoral representatives the opportunity to comment on draft doctoral regulations”.Higher Education Act of Saxony-Anhalt, Article 18Exactly what these “issues concerning doctoral students” were then gradually became clear over the next few months. 

Building structures

But when you are the first committee of this kind, you have to do some groundwork. The first thing we did was to set up the blog on which this article can be read, and to create the usual ‘infrastructure’: Email addresses in the faculties and for the Spokesperson’s Council, postal address, etc. The Spokesperson’s Council is the assembly of all the elected doctoral student representatives of each faculty. Recently, we also managed to make the blog truly bilingual. After all, a significant number of our doctoral students are so-called “internationals”. Then it was time for networking – both locally, with other interest groups and institutions at the university (Staff Council, International Office, InGra), and nationally with other doctoral student organisations. We are a founding member of the Federal Association of Doctoral Students. We have also made our voice heard in (university) politics. Last summer we took part in the University Action Week organised by various organisations, gave a speech at the local event and contributed our own events. 

Visibility

Another important – and rather arduous – step was (and still is) public relations. Not only have we lobbied the key players (Rectorate, Chancellor, Staff Council, Vice-Rectorate for Research, etc.) for our interests, but we have also made ourselves known through a series of events. After all, what’s the point of having the best doctoral student representatives if no one knows they exist? Especially at the beginning, we had the feeling that the first attempts in this direction did not bear fruit. Few of you found your way to our “get-togethers” or wrote to us with problems. But at the end of the last winter term, we were surprised by the publicity and a little word of mouth. At our last event we gave our talk to a full SSR! And we have been getting more and more enquiries in our email inbox. The many different problems and requests to speak have also strengthened our belief that a PhD representative body is “needed” and that there is a lot of work waiting for our successors.  However, we have not yet found a good solution for how every new doctoral student at MLU can know from the beginning that there is a doctoral student representative to whom they can turn if they have problems.

Committee work

Regular participation in university committees also derives from the tasks set out in the legal text. Over the past two years, we have become familiar with these “regular” tasks. The doctoral student representatives at MLU have a permanent seat in the University Senate, which sometimes meets late into the evening. This is where the most important issues affecting the university – and us – are discussed. For example, the reorganisation in the course of the HEP (Hochschulentwicklungsplan), the University Development Plan. Without the work of our Permanent Representative to the Senate, we would be missing an important source of information. Our presence at the faculty council meetings of the faculties where we were elected is also important. This allows us to be directly involved in the areas where we work and write our dissertations. Important topics have been, and still are, the doctoral regulations (Promotionsordnungen) or the state graduate support programme, which affects us in particular because many PhD students depend on these grants for funding. There is definitely room for improvement. It is important to note that we do not have voting rights in either body, but we can submit motions and make comments on all matters. In the future we would like to make more use of the possibility to submit motions. 

First achievements

But what have we actually achieved, apart from the successful completion of the “groundwork”? First of all, after about a year, we have managed to get more and more requests for another point in the law: The “statement”. The PhD representatives were increasingly involved in processes and committees and were able to “tinker” with regulations that directly affect us as PhD candidates. As these processes are still ongoing, we cannot go into more detail. But we can say this much: if the regulations are finalised as planned, it will be a big step forward for us PhD students. We have also achieved a lot in terms of “visibility”. In the recently adopted University Development Plan, we have been able to emphasise the important role of PhD students in teaching and research; we have also made our voices heard in the Staff Council newspaper and through the University Press Office. However, in many of these areas we have fallen short of our potential. This brings us to the final point: participation.

Problems and prospects

If there were a full complement of PhD representatives, there would be 18 of us (two per faculty). When we started, however, there were only about 10 of us, most of whom became unreachable in the weeks and months that followed. This was and is highly problematic because, for example, important faculties from the natural sciences were not represented from the outset. This meant that there was a lack of input in terms of content, as well as a lack of specific subject cultures that had to be taken into account. This of course made it difficult to coordinate the work in the faculties, in the committees and also nationally, and required a lot of time management on our part. We also had to put many of our ideas on hold. After all, we all still have dissertations to write and many of us are still working in the institutes or on other committees. As we have already reported, we have therefore decided that our last “task” will be to ensure that at least two people from each faculty stand for election to the next PhD Representatives’ Council. We need your help to make this happen!

The time has come! – the doctoral student representatives at MLU Halle-Wittenberg will be elected for the second time. This means that all doctoral students at this university have the opportunity to vote and elect their representatives between May 16 and May 27, 2024. However, they not only have the right to vote, but also can be elected themselve. So if you feel that you would like to represent the interests of doctoral students in your faculty or the Senate, please contact us (for information) or fill in the form directly (between April 3 and April 23, 2024).

Further information on the procedure can be found on the website of the election committee: https://wisswei.verwaltung.uni-halle.de/wahlen/promovierendenvertretung2024/

We – the active PhD representatives – have set ourselves the final task of making this election a success. For us, this means that at least two people from each of MLU’s nine faculties will stand for election so that each faculty is represented in the respective council meetings as well as in the doctoral student council. More importantly, however, if we achieve this goal with 18 elected members, the representation of doctoral candidates’ interests at this university will be ready for all the challenges that lie ahead. These include, for example, our participation in the doctoral committees (Promotionsausschüsse) of the various faculties in the coming years and our more active involvement in the senate (universitärer Senat) and faculty councils (Fakulätsräte).

This campaign consists primarily of advertising via all possible channels (e-mail distribution list, posters, press office, flyers, website). However, we also want to clarify the most important questions here and elsewhere for all those who are not so familiar with the work (this will follow in the coming days)).

What are the tasks? What knowledge do I need to acquire? Who do we meet with on a regular basis? We can also answer these questions personally by e-mail. In the next few days, we will also publish a detailed overview of our past and present activities, our successes and our positive and negative experiences so that you can form your own opinion. Please contact us if you are thinking of joining:

promovierendenvertretung@uni-halle.de