Letter to the executive board
The letter we aim to send to the Executive Board (CvB) can be found below. If you have any feedback on the letter, please contact Kevin Vonk.Dear prof.dr. Vinod Subramaniam, prof.dr.ir. Tom Veldkamp and drs. Machteld Roos,
On the 26th of March 2024, an opinion piece was published by Max Rang in UToday (https://www.utoday.nl/opinion/74008). In this opinion piece, Max describes that he is unable to defend his thesis due to many rules, regulations and obligations that are self-imposed by the University of Twente. In his case specifically, he has to make a choice between upholding scientific and personal integrity or adhering to the self-imposed rules. Whilst he is impacted significantly, many other Ph.D. candidates share the observations and opinions that Max writes about in his piece.
Our goal with this letter is to emphasise the scope of the problem and highlight the number of Ph.D. candidates that are actively impacted by the status quo. We hope that this letter compels you to include and involve Ph.D. candidates in conversations and feedback regarding the entire Ph.D. trajectory. Furthermore, we hope that changes will be made to the Twente Graduate School, such that it actually becomes a benefit to Ph.D. candidates rather than being a burden, in particular with regards to the mandatory TGS courses. Finally, steps should be undertaken to prioritise the scientific pursuit, rather than the bureaucracy surrounding it.
We hope that we can start a fruitful conversation on these topics and improve the university for everyone. We look forward to receiving your reply.
With kind regards,
[List of Signees]