Mastodawn

Bruno BEAUFILS 20h ago

If any PhD students are following your account, boosting would be appreciated.

Fellow PhD student: hello!

blobcat_waverev

I hope you had a good Monday.

0) In which country are you pursuing your PhD?
1) What is the official duration of your PhD programme? Does it assume you already have a Master's?
2) How many academic credits (e.g., ECTS) are you required to get in order to complete your PhD?
3) If you are paid for TAing, can you estimate the number of teaching contact hours you need in order to supplement other sources of funding?

My union and Ph.D. committee have been asking for feedback, and I have a theory I'd like to test. Feel free to use private mentions if you want.

Edit: I am now using "academic credits" to make myself more understandable to non-EU people.

@foxy what is an ects?

amelliug 1d ago

@melissawm @foxy It’s the number of points you earn when you complete courses.

@amelliug @foxy oh like credits. I see. I think this is not standardized across countries (I know for a fact mine were not between Brazil and Belgium) so it may be worth rewording if you're hoping for non-US answers

@melissawm @amelliug Yes, I edited my question after your first comment. I decided halfway through to address non-EU PhD students, as well, and forgot to adapt the content of the question accordingly.

amelliug 1d ago

@melissawm @foxy I think it's standardized in european countries.

Benedikt Peterseim 1d ago

@foxy 0) The Netherlands 1) Four years. Yes. 2) 30 ETCS 4) N/A I think, since teaching is part of my general work contract and not a separate job.

Hope it helps in testing your theory. :)

@benediktpeterseim

4) N/A I think, since teaching is part of my general work contract and not a separate job. Then let's say you're supplementing the trivial (empty) source of funding with your work contract, which requires you to TA. If you also factor in your PhD thesis semester, how many hours per week would you say you spend on contact hours on average? (Contact hours = hours actually spent in class.)

Benedikt Peterseim 18h ago

@foxy In that case, it would be 2 contact hours per week, one quarter of the academic year, plus a little bit of thesis supervision (if that counts) for a total average of about 0,75 contact hours per week.

However, I should say that preparation and grading dominate the time spent in class teaching by a lot, so I’m not sure if the "contact hours" are an interesting metric in my case. My total time spent on teaching activities is probably more around 2-3 hours a week, when averaged over the whole year.

Dr. Sobek 22h ago

@foxy Are you interested by answer from PhD holders that have graduated somewhat recently ?

@Sobex Yes, please! Unless the PhD system in the country in question got a complete makeover right after your defence.

Dr. Sobek 21h ago

@foxy
0) France, PhD in CS, defended in 2023.

1) 3 years after Master's degree (some rare school have PhD programs that package in the MS, for 2 extra years, but unusual afaik)

2) I don't believe there's an ECTS requirement, but there's a quota of 100h of trainings (with byzantine local rules, swith BS like entrepreneurship, a mandatory ethics training of dubious quality, PhD defences you attend may count, summer schools, etc).

3) PhD student are supposed to get a salary with minimum set by law (around 2k€/mo I do not have the exact figure by heart, IT IS A FULL-TIME JOB), no funding no grad school registration. My funding came with no builtin teaching load, I was paid by the "Vacation" regime, around 40€/h of eqTD (gross), typical yearly teaching loads tend to represent up to 64h of eqTD (TD == Tutorial == Recitation, Lectures are counted 1.5 eqTD).

However, while in STEM PhD rarely last longer than 3 years, with extensions being usually limited to a few month, or no more than a year, and funded, some humanity fields do have unreasonable stuff happening, where student spend 3 years doing research, and then 2 years (un-funded) writing their manuscript, and usually reduced to living from short-term teaching positions (ATER, Vacations, etc). I do not have first hand data on this though.

Always happy to answer more questions on France ridiculous system.

@Sobex would you say that your funding de facto required you to take on some teaching just to make ends meet? If so, could you estimate the number of contact hours (not sure if "TDs" only cover the time spent in class for the tutorial, or also the time spent to prepare for it)?

Dr. Sobek 19h ago

@foxy So, in my case, not at all, (I'm going to hide my non-representative payslips). I was way better paid than average PhD student, I taught because I liked it (and teaching during the PhD is kind of a requirement to be allowed to apply to a good chunk of faculty jobs).

And the hour counting is only student facing, prep time is not accounted for. (Apart from the 1.5 multiplier for lectures, which most PhD student don't ever got to do).

Dr. Sobek 19h ago

@foxy In the general case, I'd say that the teaching rounding up for those who don't have teaching as part of their job, usually ends up adding +10% to their salary.

@foxy In the Netherlands a PhD is a job, with full benefits like pension, salary (not stipend) and sick leave. You need to have a masters and while there is no official credits you need to get, its normal to TA 2 years, thats 4 courses over 4 semesters. The phd contract lasts 4 years with 2 extensions of a few months possible, but most people get only one extension. You get your phd when the committee decides its good enough, this is vague but usually in the first year they tell you what is expected in terms of achievements. Good luck.

@ln Thank you!

thats 4 courses over 4 semestersWould you be able to estimate the amount of TAing contact hours for the average course? If not, the average number of credits for one such course would also do.

Jaro Reinders 21h ago

0) Netherlands
1) 4 years, assumes Master's
2) 0*
3) 0

* We do need 45 "graduate school credits". These are split into: 15 credits for things like writing and presentation courses where 1 credit is basically a full day course with some homework, 15 credits for summer schools where 1 credit is one day of a summer school, and 15 "learning on the job" credits which you get for supervising students, giving a guest lecture, writing a paper, etc.

3) 0Does this mean your programme allows students to live by w/o any teaching/TAing whatsoever?

Jaro Reinders 20h ago

@foxy Yes. I was told at the start that it was not obligatory. I'm now almost at the end of my PhD and I have given two guest lectures and was a TA for one (3 month) course, but that was mostly because I also wanted some experience with that.

Vladimir 21h ago

@foxy not a student, but well, the memories are still fresh and the things did not change much.

0) Sweden 1) 4 years, but usually 4.5-5 years, see below. Technically I did not have MSc (had some equivalent), but it is assumed 2) 240, 120 comes from the defense, 50 should come from courses, and the rest is research. So 50? 3) teaching up to 25% percent was in the contract. Compensated with time (e.g. funding for the 5th year). Industrial PhD students don't have it.

Julian Külshammer 21h ago

@foxy
Not a PhD student, but as director of PhD studies, I think I can answer your questions.

Country: Sweden (Uppsala University)
Subject: Mathematics
Prerequisites: At least 4 years of previous studies, usually a 5 year master
Length of PhD: 5 years with 80% research and courses and 20% teaching (paid as full-time job)
Course component: 80 ECTS
Teaching: about 80 contact hours per year, usually problem sessions

@julian_kuelshammer Thanks!

Teaching: about 80 contact hours per year, usually problem sessionsIs this average acrossed all years, including the last one, in which I assume people work on their PhD thesis?

Julian Külshammer 12h ago

@foxy
Yes, the last year is not treated differently. Almost all theses are written cumulative, so that there is not a bigger junk of new writing in the last year, just an introduction and summary of the papers.

@julian_kuelshammer Thank you!

Eero Suoranta / 艾若思 21h ago

@foxy Here are my answers:

0) Finland.
1) Four years is the target, after your Master's. (There's currently a pilot program aimed mainly at STEM fields where it's three years.) In actuality it takes much longer, unless you're incredibly lucky with funding.
2) 40 credits ECTS, most of which can be chosen very freely. The actual dissertation is 0 credits but almost all of the work.
3) There are no TAs in my field (the humanities) here. You might get paid to *teach* a course or two, if your university is forced into a situation where they actually have to hire someone to do so; if you have full-time research funding (grant or salaried doctoral researcher position), there's a set maximum (something like 5-20% of your hours) that you can spend on teaching or any other work.

@InfamousSnake thanks! Because the last question was specifically about contact hours, may I ask what is the expected ratio

contact hours / at-home-preparation hours? (Contact hours are the ones spent in class with the students.)

Eero Suoranta / 艾若思 20h ago

@foxy Unfortunately, I have no idea. I'll be teaching a 5 ECTS course next autumn and have been told that it contains 28 hours of contact teaching, but I don't have any information yet on what the total amount of hours is supposed to be.

@foxy
0 - Spain
1 - 3 after you actually enroll at the university, assumes master
2 - You have some competencies that you have to get by attending some classes or by doing some other stuff (in practice: publish one paper and take two classes that are like 8 hours each)
3) 0

@bool Thank you!

3) 0So if I understand this right, your funding situation is such that you can live by without teaching/TAing? I hope this question is not too personal.

@foxy Exactly

Artemis 19h ago

@foxy
I'm a recent graduate.

0) USA

1) 5 years, does not assume masters

2) 30 coursework + 30 research. The research credits did not have a set definition. You estimated how long your research would take and divided the credits between that time.

3) I did research, not TA. I did 20 hours of paid research a week, plus either classes or 20 hours of research for credit. I worked full time during summers. I was essentially salaried, getting paid once a month for a set amount.

My PhD was a long time ago but it did not involve anything that could have been described as academic credits. There was no point-scoring.

The requirement was to complete and write up a substantial original research project.

1. Brazil;
2. The expected amount of time for the programme is 4 years; a Master's is not explicitly required where I'm currently enrolled;
3. 36 credits;
4. At least in my case, N/A (I was not paid)

@foxy Hi, there!

I'm finishing my PhD at a public Mexican university, which does require having a master's degree. My program doesn't work with credits, but we do need to take a couple of classes in the first two or three semesters (lost count). There's no requirement in my program to do any kind of work. There's a common public scholarship program that pays very reasonable and may require some kind of "social service" activities, but they are pretty board, not necessarily teaching.

@etzel ty! Does your PhD programme have an official duration?

@foxy oh, yeah, sorry. 4 years :)

twoodford 13h ago

Recent graduate here.

0) US
1) Expected 3-4 years after masters (which is +2 years). Limit is 7 years.
2) 48 "units", which is approximately 1.5 years of full-time coursework. Coursework is generally satisfied by master's coursework though.
3) I was usually fully funded for research, but did up to 10 hours a week of TA work during <10% of my degree. The actual teaching contact (as opposed to grading) was probably 4 hours per week.

Behethot 9h ago

@foxy France, 3 years and yes, 180ects but the manuscript and defence account for 150, I don't teach

Moritz Negwer 8h ago

0) Netherlands, Neurobiology.
1) nominally 4 years. It took me 8.5 years to actually graduate, which is definitely longer than most (average ca 6 years, after the end of the 4-year contract often unpaid on the side). Master's is typically required. A PhD program is considered a temporary job, not a study.
2) technically none, though the institute had a graduate school that gets you another certificate along with the PhD if you complete half a year's worth of MSc-equivalent courses.

Moritz Negwer 8h ago

@foxy
3) teaching is part of my contract, not a separate job. I taught very few classes. Instead I mentored interns that worked in the lab on my project for 3-12 months full-time. Over the course of my PhD, I've mentored 9 interns in one capacity or another. Most became co-authors on the papers that resulted from the work, and I couldn't have done this workload without them.

@moritz_negwer ty! Do you have an estimate for the number of hours actually spent with the students?