The Center of Doctoral Studies initiated the project Empowering Doctoral Candidates through Personal Development Planning, which started in March 2013. The project is a joint venture between Matej Bel University (Banská Bystrica ), Comenius University (Bratislava) and the University of Vienna with the aim to contribute to a change of the PhD training perspective towards a primarly human centred individualized outcome of the PhD trajectory.
In the last decade, doctoral education has been undergoing dramatic changes. Today the young independent researcher, having acquired a number of skills and competences and experienced a substantial gain through performing research and working independently, is considered as the major outcome of a doctorate. Universities have developed a variety of strategies to encourage PhD candidates to reflect upon and evaluate their own research experiences and plan for their own development. Influenced by the Higher Education System in the UK, the term Personal Development Planning (PDP) has become popular to describe this process.
The project addresses the increasing need to develop personal and professional development support measures in universities. It aims at developing a set of guiding principles for a successful implementation of PDP practices, ranging from practical tools to communication routes for articulating the value of PDP and the development of appropriate policies.
Doctoral candidats from the three partner universities will be actively involved in this process and the design of PDP tools which will be a starting point of reflection concerning their skills, strengths and weaknesses.
The project is funded by the Aktion Österreich - Slowakei.
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