The mission of P-NUT

The goal of P-NUT is to inform all PhD students (AIOs, TWAIOs and OIOs) on the University of Twente, to serve their interests and to be a platform and spokesperson for them concerning UT-related issues.

Informing

A university is a large and complex organization in which it is very challenging to let information flow to the right people on the right time. This also applies to information flows to PhD students. P-NUT aims to streamline this information flow towards PhD students by gathering relevant information from the several departments and units at this university and by providing this information to the PhD students. Our main communication channel is our website, but other channels are used as well, like social events, meetings, and reports.

Serving interests

P-NUT is not only there to provide information, but also to be an active representative for PhD students. Currently, P-NUT represents approximately 575 PhD students on the UT, a sizable and important group with a special position within the university. Examples are their dependency on their promotors and their educational needs and obligations. As a representative of PhD students, P-NUT tries to serve their interest as well as possible. Examples are discussions with the university board about working conditions and career development. Moreover, if P-NUT is not able or not the most suitable organization to address certain issues, we try to redirect PhD students to other organizations. We do this for example by the link page within our website.

Being a platform

In addition to these intermediary roles between university and PhD students, P-NUT also wants to be a platform for PhD students. By organizing social events we try to stimulate communication between PhD students of different faculties. Examples of past events are several lunch meetings and drinks. In addition to purely social events P-NUT also tries to organize informative social events on a regular basis. Examples of such events are meetings with printing companies and discussion meetings on relevant issues for PhD students.

How we try to do this

Although P-NUT tries its best to fulfill these three roles, it is a PhD network that operates purely on a voluntary basis. P-NUT has no official position within the university and thus does not have any decision power. This means that we cannot decide on any PhD related issues ourselves. However, until now the university is appreciating our suggestions. Because of the voluntary basis, P-NUT cannot exist without the active support of all PhD students. We need their involvement and information to function effectively.