The PRIDE 5th project meeting took place on May 18th-20th, 2016 in Rome at the UNIMED headquarters.
The meeting had as main objective to discuss and to finalise the PRIDE handbook for professionals working in doctoral education. The handbook, foreseen as one of the main important deliverables of the project, has many contributors and combines their knowledge and different experiences with the findings gathered through an international, mostly European, survey and interviews undertaken within the framework of an EU funded project. The intended audiences of the handbook are administrators contributing to doctoral education, HR managers and academic leaders in higher education institutions.
To know more about the project, please visit the PRIDE website.
The PRIDE Project.
Doctoral education in Europe has been undergoing a dramatic change in the last decade. European policy papers are asking for new skills for new jobs to the benefit of a European Innovation Union. Universities have taken up this challenge as hubs for the production of knowledge to provide highly skilled employees. This resulted in investments in the personal and professional development of PhD candidates, supportive structures, and higher quality of scientific supervision. However, the need for professional development of administrative staff required to support the overall endeavor is neglected. The potential benefit related to professional development measures for administrators, who are still seen as primarily a residual personnel category, have not been recognized.
The PRIDE project, funded under the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission, aims on an alternative approach to administration in the area of doctoral education. The overall aim of the project is to professionalize administrative staff in doctoral education, in order to provide better support to PhD supervisors, PhD candidates and external stakeholders.
Objectives of the project are:
- to collect and analyse needs and good practices focusing on the different roles and responsibilities of administrative staff in doctoral education as well as expectations they are confronted with;
- to describe in a handbook for professionalizing administrative staff the roles and responsibilities of professionals to highlight their formal status in administrative positions and the potential benefits for institutions;
- to design a training course for professionalization of administrative staff.
All objectives follow a multi-target group approach regarding potential end-users of the results, namely administrators in doctoral education, directors of doctoral schools and programs, HR units, and career service centres. Through the formalization of an international network for professionals in doctoral education the awareness for continuous improvement will be addressed.
The partnership.
- University of Zaghreb, Croatia
- UNICA, Network of Universities from the Capitals of Europe, Belgium
- Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Germany
- UNIMED, Mediterranean Universities Union, Italy
- Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
- Comenius University, Slovakia
- Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Portugal
- Fundación Universidad Empresa of the Region of Murcia, Spain
- Tallinn University, Estonia