PhD Academy has completed its first year, interest exceeded expectations

"We evaluate the first year of the PhD Academy as a success. We were very pleasantly surprised by the interest of PhD students, because we did not expect to see such a high number of participants. A big thank you also goes to our lecturers.  We believe that we will continue to improve our services and the interest will grow even more," said Kamila Janovská, a member of the organizing team.

The PhD Academy has provided a diverse range of courses from several providers at the university level. There were 27 courses in the winter semester and one more in the summer semester. They focused mainly on scientometrics and publishing practice, fundamentals of scientific work, project management and soft skills.

"The greatest interest was in the courses offered by the Central Library of the VŠB-TUO. The lecturers covered practical issues related to scientific writing, including proper citation, the risk of plagiarism, and reporting and promoting publications. The courses of professional English were also very popular," said Lucie Hofrichterová, administrator of the PhD Academy.

The PhD Academy has already prepared a selection of courses for the next academic year, which you can already find on the website. The organizers have taken into consideration the participants’ comments of the participants of the pilot run. Similarly to this academic year, PhD students can also look forward to foreign lecturers. In addition to Sam Illingworth from Edinburgh Napier University, who has already joined the PhD Academy, they will also be joined by Marcus Minton from PORG, who will focus on critical thinking, and Laura Stark from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, who will focus on the ethics of scientific work.

A significant event awaits the PhD Academy from 5 to 8 September, when Dana Lynn Driscoll, Director of the Jones White Writing Center at Indiana University of Pennsylvania in the United States, will share her knowledge and experience in the field of academic and scientific writing with PhD students and teachers. The registration for the upcoming workshops is now open.

There are over 1,100 doctoral students studying at VŠB-TUO. Detailed information about the PhD Academy is available on its website.