A council guarding the PhD’s rights
Steffen Hammer is the new Chairperson for the ITM School's PhD Council. Find out why he is getting involved and what he hopes to change during his term of office.
Hi Steffen Hammer, you are the new chairperson for the ITM PhD Council. How come you want to get involved in the council?
"I saw the need of a better structure here, and outreach to the doctoral students at each department at ITM. Unless you have a friend in the council, most doctoral students don’t know that the PhD council exists - or what we do".
"I was actually already involved in the council as educational manager in 2023, taking over from a colleague at the Energy Technology department (EGI). In 2023 not all positions were filled, or people took double roles within the council".
What’s the council’s tasks?
"The objectives of the ITM PhD Council are to promote more effective and higher quality doctoral education and research. This includes to improve the general conditions for the students at ITM as well as making them aware of their rights and responsibilities during their doctoral studies. Furthermore, we organize social events for interacting of PhDs within the departments or even the school".
What do you want to improve or change during your time as chairperson?
"I want to increase the involvement of the doctoral students in the council but also bring more structure to it. Most importantly I want to increase the awareness of student rights since the PhD survey of the last two years showed that ITM was lacking good supervision. Lastly, I want to organise more social events with the help of the ITM PhD council".
Written by Anna Gullers