The Ph.D. network P-NUT chose a new board on Thursday evening. Jan Hofste (ITC) is the new chairman. The board further consists of Özlem Demirel (TNW) and Vlad Tkachuk (Applied Sciences). 'We want to act even more as an advocate.
Congratulations! Why do you want to be chairman of P-NUT?
'I was already treasurer last year, so I know what's going on and what the presidency means. And I think it's a nice challenge to be the chairman of a group of fifteen active board members. '
What do you want to achieve in the coming year?
"P-NUT has two branches. We organize meetings to inform our members and to get together. In addition, we are the advocate of Ph.D. students at the UT. We have taken on that role a little more last year, and we want to expand that further. Promoting is sometimes difficult, for example, if the contact is not good with your supervisor or if you get stuck in the study. We want to make these sounds known to the Twente Graduate School or the Executive Board. '
'We also want to make these kinds of problems more debatable within our group. We see that it is sometimes difficult for international Ph.D. students. They do not know that you can go to a Ph.D. counselor and that your conversation there is really confidential. We want to remove the inhibition. '
How is your relationship with Dutch Ph.D. students and international?
'At the moment we are mainly reaching international PhDs. When they arrive in Twente, they almost immediately become members to social contacts. We, therefore, want to reach the Dutch PhDs more this year. We think this can be done by filling in even more that role of advocate. '
Finally, as a Ph.D. student, you spend four years in a pressure cooker. Do you have time for this presidency?
"Of course, you can not achieve everything. But in addition to the three elected members, the board consists of about 15 active people. That makes it manageable. And I'm in my second Ph.D. year, then you still have some time for something. Most Ph.D. students have retreated a little more in the last two years to fully focus on the dissertation. It will be busy, but I think it is important to have a strong Ph.D. work at the UT. '
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