University Council wants all lecturers to have the right to award PhDs

The University Council put forward a proposal this week to transform the right to supervise PhD candidates (ius promovendi) into a formal training programme. This would grant all tenured UU staff members with a PhD the right to act as primary supervisors for PhD students. 

The request is part of a broader call to address hierarchical relationships at the university. Three years ago, the Young Academy published a manifesto called ‘Let's Call Everyone a Professor’, arguing that all academics should have the right to supervise PhD candidates. 

UU professor Erik van Sebille recently argued for relaxing the ius promovendi rule in a column on DUB. He believes the change would modernise the PhD system.

According to UU Council member Eleni Braat, a survey across several faculties revealed that the exclusive nature of the right to supervise PhD candidates is a source of concern for many UU staff members. They consider it indefensible that the day-to-day supervision of PhD candidates is often carried out by associate professors or assistant professors who lack the formal authority to do so.

“Sufficiently competent”
In the Netherlands, only professors have the right to award doctoral titles. Since 2017, a legislative amendment has also granted that right to other academics. After that, the association of Dutch universities drew up guidelines to ensure that supervisors are “sufficiently competent” to hold the role, but it is up to each Dutch university to interpret them as it sees fit.

According to the members of the University Council, Utrecht University remains highly selective in granting the right to award doctoral degrees. The conditions for obtaining ius promovendi are listed on the university's website. They state that academics must have extensive experience as co-supervisors of doctorates successfully completed on time. Depending on the discipline, academics must have been awarded a major NWO or ERC research grant before they can get the right to supervise PhDs, or hold a senior research qualification known as Skoz.

The University Council considers these criteria to be unrealistic. Furthermore, it believes that some of these requirements fuel competition among academics, which is at odds with UU’s "Recognition & Rewards" policy, which is supposed to foster collaborations among staff by appreciating academics for a wider range of competencies. 

The council members are therefore proposing to grant all associate and assistant professors the right to supervise PhD candidates. However, in their view, those looking to supervise PhD candidates must complete a training programme first. This approach would be comparable to the Basic Teaching Qualification (BKO), the programme offered to assistant professors.

Lighter
UU Rector Wilco Hazeleger has been given some time to consider the matter. He does not need to respond to the proposal until the next council cycle in May. However, he briefly reacted to some passages in the memorandum during a meeting with the council this week. According to him, the Doctoral Committee, which comprises the rector and all deans, grants the right to supervise PhD candidates "quite frequently".

In the rector’s view, the conditions published on the Internet lead to a misperception, and the web texts are more about examples than strict requirements. As a rule, it suffices for someone to demonstrate that they possess substantive expertise in their field and experience as a supervisor of a PhD programme. “You can see that the ius promovendi is already being handled more lightly.”

Council member Eleni Braat then asked why the online texts had been worded that way. After all, many staff members end up getting the impression that it is a weighty procedure.

Hazeleger promised to take another close look at the “rather old” texts over the next few weeks and examine the differences between faculties. The rector observes that the way the faculties implement the policy varies. He said he had already urged faculties with many PhD candidates to apply for PhD supervision rights for more staff members. “If someone has twenty PhD candidates, that cannot be good.”

According to the rector, the council can assume that an adjustment will be made in due course. When doing so, the university will consider whether a link can be established between the right to supervise PhD students, the standard promotion policy, and the research qualification. “There are overlaps there, and we will investigate whether we can streamline that.”