Newsmail #55, 2023-04-05
Dear all,
We have now wrapped up two days of discussions among the faculty regarding strategic development of our research education, BSc- and MSc education. The absolute majority of the faculty joined, only a few could not join.
Our research education, our general study plan, will be revised and submitted within a few weeks. The changes compared to the current version is that the requirements in terms of number of publications is more specified (journal publications that is). The list of required and recommended courses for PhD students is updated. We also include a new mechanism called planning seminars, which is to be held annually, and involves both PhD students and supervisors. The requirement will (might) vary slightly depending on which unit that enrolls the PhD student (in reality, more according to the subject at hand), but these are rather small differences and reflect how the publication landscape differs slightly between our subjects.
Regarding BSc- and MSc-programs, we have an ongoing process to establish “majors and minors”. These have now been clarified and will be put into the program descriptions. We also identified potentials for new courses in the 1st and 3rd year of the BSc programs. We are starting a number of pilot activities after the summer that relate to our program development. One pilot aims at creating a modular structure of courses in a MSc program, where all courses are given basically every semester, to enable more flexibility. One other pilot looks into further digitalization of the preparatory year, the year before the BSc-program starts, which has not been a priority for us, but might be of interest now with lower numbers of applying students. The third of the pilots looks into expanding our prototype center, to collaborate more with other departments, and thereby to both grow in size and share the costs between more participants. These pilots are run on KTH-level, and we are expected to disseminate our learnings from these. I think this creates an excellent opportunity for us to tell the rest of KTH what we are doing.
Now I wish all MMK members a nice upcoming Easter holiday.
Best,
Martin