actionuni has given feedback on the new ETH legislation. Our main points are: criticism on the plan to increase the flexibility concerning contract duration for PostDocs and Assistant Professors. A minimum of four years in the first contract should be ensured. salary equality within ETH needs to be ensured by the ETH-Rat, also in case … Continued
Salome Adam, co-president of actionuni, participated in a discussion with Prof. Aguzzi from University of Zurich on the misuse of power and mobbing at universities. Some real cases are reported but also ways are discussed of how pressure in research can be mitigated without compromising scientific quality. Link to SRF (only German)
Today, actionuni der Schweizer Mittelbau publishes its position paper (pdf German / pdf French / pdf English) on the promotion of young researchers at Swiss higher education institutions. The position paper was drawn up jointly with all members and unanimously adopted at the last delegates’ meeting. Florian Lippke, former Co-President of actionuni and member of … Continued
Last week, an interesting symposium on the topic of supervising doctoral students was held by ETH in Zurich. It was discussed, how better training for supervisors can improve quality of supervision, how a contract between the PhD-student and the supervisor can help clarify expectations, how PhD-committees help balance power, which platforms can help strengthen peer-feedback … Continued
Three big European organisations for early-career and senior researchers have jointly issued a response to ‘Plan S’ on Open Access. Reassuring their support, they offer concrete recommendations on the proposed guidance for achieving Open Access via Plan S to ensure its realistic implementation from the perspective of European researchers. Read more: http://eurodoc.net/news/2019/press-release-researchers-respond-to-implementation-of-plan-s Never heard of … Continued
We are looking for two young researcher interested in traveling to Brussels from 1 to 4 April and represent actionuni at the Eurodoc Annual Conference and Annual General Meeting. Costs are covered. Please send an expression of interest to salome.adam@actionuni.ch by 22 February 2019.
The Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences (SAGW) has published a report on the precarious situation of the non-professorial academic staff. Focus is being laid on post-docs in social sciences. Unfortunately, the report is in German – however, the management summary is available in German and French. Hildbrand, Thomas (2018): Next Generation: Für eine … Continued
Starting 1 February 2019, the SNF launches its new program SPIRIT: “The SPIRIT programme facilitates knowledge exchange between Swiss researchers and researchers in selected countries that are receiving development assistance. With SPIRIT, the SNSF is giving Swiss researchers more opportunities to collaborate with partners in many countries around the world.” International consortia can request between … Continued
Survey on the perceptions of working conditions and their impact on health. The results shed light on a number of difficulties encountered by the CCER. A large majority of the population interviewed mentioned a lack of time to carry out the tasks requested and specifications that did not correspond to reality. In addition to this … Continued
In fall 2017, the survey on the supervision practices at the ETH investigated supervision practices and doctoral students’ satisfaction. 1’594 doctoral students responded to the survey, which is a response rate of 36%. Survey conducted by AVETH (Academic Association of Scientific Staff at ETH Zürich). To the survey