Vacant positions – Become a student representative!

A new generation of doctoral student representatives was elected! However, a few vacant positions are waiting for motivated PhD students to apply for. Do you want to join the DSA board? Are you the next student representative on the docent committee? Or do you want to improve our research schools?  

2020-21 have been intense years for all of us, they have pushed us to rethink our education, our community, and our work environment. We are still facing many challenges, but, slowly and with all the necessary precautions we are going back to a more normal life.   

As the DSA, we never stopped taking care of our community. Thanks to the network of departmental doctoral student representatives, over the past two years we were able to constantly have feedback from each department and, at the same time, forward all the information we could collect to discuss them at the central level with KI. Thanks to all of you, we could face the KI leadership and let our worries and requests be heard and our rights observed.   

All of that could not happen without the choice of some of us to dedicate part of our time as doctoral student representatives. It is still possible to candidate for vacant positions by filling the application forms under the positions below.  

Here you can find more information on each vacant position: 

1. Docent Committee  

The docent committee is responsible to review the docentship applications and decides who to assign the title of docent to. If you are interested in teaching and shaping the future education at KI, apply for this position. It also gives you a unique opportunity to familiarize yourself with the requirements to become a docent if you consider continuing in academia after your PhD. Discussions are held in Swedish; while you may reply in English, the documents are partly in Swedish and partly in English.    

You can read more about the position here: https://staff.ki.se/the-docent-committee  

If you have any questions, you can reach out to the current representative: Yangjun Liu 

2. Doctoral programs and Research schools 

• Doctoral Programme in Development and Regeneration (DEVREG) 

• Research School in Epidemiology 

• Research School in Psychiatry 

• Research School in Molecular Medicine 

• KI SÖS Research School for Clinicians 

• Swedish interdisciplinary graduate school in register-based research (SINGS) 

• National clinical research school in chronic inflammatory diseases 

They organize and coordinate courses and learning activities specific to their research field. As a student representative, you will contribute to organizing, planning, developing, and evaluating courses, seminars, and other activities. The steering groups usually meet 2-3 times/semester (might be different for each group). The Doctoral Course and Programmes Committee is the superordinate committee and coordinates/evaluates all steering groups.   

If you feel that there are improvements to be made to courses provided by KI in your specific research fields, the steering groups offer the perfect opportunity to get involved. Maybe you think there is a whole subject missing within the offered courses or potential to improve existing courses. This is your opportunity to change that!   

Language requirements: For doctoral programs, English is the language of communication, some documents might be in Swedish. For research schools, Swedish is the language of communication, the positions are specific for clinical PhDs.    

You can read more about the positions here:  

Doctoral Programs:  https://staff.ki.se/doctoral-programmes  

Research Schools:  https://staff.ki.se/research-schools  

3. Department Doctoral Representatives  

• Department of Clinical Sciences, Danderyd Hospital 

• Department of Medicine, Huddinge 

• Department of Physiology and Pharmacology 

Department Doctoral Representatives have a wide variety of responsibilities,  depending on the department’s needs and culture. Generally, your duties will include improving education and the work environment for students in your department. Specifically, you will be asked to participate in the admission seminars, establishment of new doctoral positions and have close contact with the study director. In some departments, you might be invited to the discussions regarding the green light applications for supervisors. Some Department Representatives also choose to organize socials events to improve the communication between all students of the department. You can also opt for additional roles like department council and support the Prefekt if you choose to.   

As a representative, you will have more bargaining power to create positive change in your department. You will also function as a contact point between the DSA and the students in your department – both to relay information from the DSA to students but also to highlight local issues through the DSA to the central KI level.   

Becoming a Department Student Representative ensures that your voice is heard and gives you leverage to improve the situation for you and the students in your department. It is a great way to improve your network within your own department and improve your CV at the same time.   

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us by email at [email protected] or reach out to the current representatives!