Universitetsavisen
Nørregade 10
1165 København K
Tlf: 35 32 28 98 (mon-thurs)
E-mail: uni-avis@adm.ku.dk
—
Opinion
Majority — About two-thirds of the academic staff are PhDs, postdocs and other temporarily employed staff. But we are not well represented at the University of Copenhagen. Let us use the university election to change that.
Last year there were elections for the Board of the University of Copenhagen (UCPH) – and it did not go smoothly. The list ‘Involve the Researchers!’ needed 35 votes to secure both the two seats for academic staff on the board. The missing votes were only secured with the support of the list ‘Involve PhDs and Postdocs!’ which in this way became decisive for the election.
OPINION ON THE UNIVERSITY POST
This is a featured comment/opinion piece. It expresses the author’s own opinion.
We encourage everyone to read the whole piece before commenting on social media, so that we only get constructive contributions.
Disagreement is good, but remember to uphold a civil and respectful tone.
As PhD students we created this list to directly address the group of temporarily employed junior researchers in order to highlight a democratic bias: out of approximately 5,000 eligible voters in the academic staff category, less than a third are permanent employees. The vast majority are PhDs, postdocs and other temporary staff.
With a four-year election period for the Board however, it makes little sense for temporary staff to run, because they run the risk of having to stop halfway through the period – if they are even lucky enough to get the opportunity to stand for election during their employment at all.
READ ALSO: Give PhDs and Postdocs better conditions
In the past 20 years, the number of PhD degrees awarded at Danish universities has doubled, and the use of postdoctoral appointments has exploded. Among the structural causes are increased project-led external funding and citation tyranny that gives professors incentives to hire and prey on younger researchers (#pleasedontstealmywork).
This presents challenges on various fronts, including well-being. But ironically, it has given the group of temporary staff a potential superiority on the ballot in this whiff of democracy we still have at the university.
When we created the list, we did not think that PhDs should take up the very few internal seats for university staff on the university board, although we would like to see ourselves represented. At the last election, we therefore gave our support to Involve the Researchers! who do a really good job.
The election campaign has led to a collaboration with the sitting Board members from Involve the Researchers! They have put our issues on the Board’s agenda, and we have had the opportunity to contribute to their work.
READ ALSO: ‘Involve the researchers!’ election list: There is so much at stake in this election
If you would like to collaborate with us or simply want to express an opinion that you think we as temporarily-hired researchers should try to put on the agenda of the Board, then this is an invitation to contact the undersigned.
This autumn there are elections for study boards and PhD committees at the faculties.
I myself have sat on the PhD committee at the Faculty of Science, which act as an advisory board for the management of the PhD school. Unfortunately, I experienced that it was just used to rubberstamp management decisions without them listening to us.
I voiced my criticism in the University Post earlier this year, and I am still awaiting a reaction from management. Their silence emphasizes my point about the arrogance of management. Instead, the communication machine rolls at its usual pace with happy news about how well things are going.
READ ALSO: And now the PhD reform!
Don’t let them silence us! Take action where you work, cast your vote and find your closest committed colleague in order for us to make the university better together. And then it will be exciting to see if we get two brave PhD students on the board in three years, when there are elections for the university board again.
You can run for theuniversity election here (requires login to KUnet).