Doctoral researchers' section

The Doctoral Researchers’ Section (DRS) is open to all doctoral researchers in the University of Oulu. The section is run by the doctoral researchers themselves.

The section works bilingualy. You don’t need to be a member of OYY to join, but if you want to be a representative in the University administration or become the Chair or Vice Chair of the section, you need to join OYY.

Advocacy

The Section watches over University decision-making and doctoral training practices, proactively advocates doctoral researchers’ interests and well-being, and promotes doctoral researchers’ awareness of their rights and their ways of influencing University decision-making. DRS nominates the representatives of doctoral researchers for the administrative organs, and the Board of the Student Union makes the nominations. 

DRS meetings and events serve as central forums for sharing topical issues and questions. You can contact the Chair of DRS or the committee representatives if you have a question or a concern about doctoral studies and research, or if have a topic that you would like to be discussed in the meetings.

DRS representatives in the UniOGS committees 

UniOGS Management group:

The chair of DRS is the member of the UniOGS Management Group. The task of the UniOGS Management Group is to support the dean of UniOGS in leading and developing doctoral training and implementing the strategy of the University. The Management Group discusses e.g. the development of doctoral training processes, admission times and admission criteria and the amount of travel grants. 

Education group of UniOGS

The task of the Education Group is to evaluate and develop the general and transferrable skills courses and field-specific training at the University of Oulu. The Education groups discusses e.g. how to improve the courses of UniOGS according to feedback and what kind of new courses UniOGS could offer.

Doctoral training committees

The decisions of the Committees have a significant impact in the lives of doctoral researchers. The Doctoral Training Committees direct, develop and evaluate the activities of the doctoral degree programs in the specific fields of the Committee. The Committees e.g. assess admission applications, doctoral training plans and final PhD theses. Additionally, the Committees are also responsible for organizing field-specific doctoral training. The Committees gather approximately once a month.

DRS representatives elsewhere in the University Administration

Research Council

The Research Council supports the University Board of Directors, Management Group and the rector in advancing scientific research at the University. The Council also makes proposals about policies of research and evaluates the quality of research on University level. The Council discusses e.g. new scientific directions, doctoral training, recruitment, ethical principles of research and quality assurance of research.

Education council

The Education Council supports the University Board of Directors and the rector in advancing education, provides initiatives regarding education policy as well as initiatives for developing teaching and evaluates the quality of University education. The chairperson of the education council is the vice rector of education.

 

What does it mean to be a committee member?

Working as a committee member involves familiarizing yourself in how academic decision-making functions and doing cooperation with other committee members and other stakeholders. Your main task as a representative of doctoral researchers is to make sure that decisions are made on equal grounds, and to advocate for change when needed. Depending on the committee there are meetings roughly once a month. You will get the meeting materials beforehand so you will have time to go through the agenda and discuss the topics with the other representatives in the committee. You can also raise topics for discussion in the committee, for example by contacting the coordinators.

Making it visible what you have learnt during the committee work:

Apply for study credits to be included in your doctoral studies.

UniOGS recommendations of ECTS for different activities related to doctoral studies

List the positions under Other key academic merits for your CV.

You can get more information about acting as a representative from OYY’s Specialist of Academic Affairs (kopoasiantuntija@oyy.fi).  You can also contact the current representatives or the DRS Chair for further details, see below. Please note that you need to be a member of OYY to be eligible for the representative positions.

Check current representatives, open positions and apply via halloped.fi 

Contact us

Follow DRS in social media and join the Teams working space to keep up to date about the action and events. Log in with your University account

DRS Teams

The section also send emails on our main events and meetings via UniOGS email list.

Facebook

Facebook group

WhatsApp group: send email to the DSS chair to join our WhatsApp group.

 

Atiqul Haq Mazumder
Chair of the section 2022
atiqul.mazumder[at]oulu.fi, +358456943323 (engl.)

Muthusamy Saranya
Vice chair of the section 2022
muthusamy.saranya[at]oulu.fi, +358451723910 (engl.)