Publishing, DiVA and PhD workshop @ Linnaeus University

So continuing our previous semester’s success in organizing various workshops and events for SI Network for Future Global Leaders, our chapter has been successful in securing funds for this semester. So as part of our responsibilities, we had managed to organize an event relate to academics. The focus was on how to publish our upcoming theses at DiVa and apply for PhD studies as a next step for those whom it may concern. Our chapter agreed that as a near future career option, shedding light and discussing this topic would be worthy.

However, our evening started off with a member from the university library demonstrating us the technicalities of DiVa. She led the discussion on how and where to upload, some tips and tricks to make the processes smoother etc. Additionally, she also highlighted the importance of references and the effect of plagiarism on the work students might do.  Above that, we also practically showed the participants on how to refer to pictures and other important materials commonly used in theses. This was followed by an interactive session where students got the opportunity to ask questions and get their doubts cleared.

After a traditional fika pause, we then moved ahead with our session on PhD studies. Two experienced students, both PhDs, shed their amazing life experience on how they decided to pursue such a high-ended value degree. Both had diverse experience of applying to various countries and studying there before moving to Sweden finally. Therefore, their insights into the education system in other countries were also a plus point for the participants. Depicting these in simple slides, they also shared advises on how to draft proposals, contact potential supervisors, apply with good recommendation letters and so on.  Therefore, lot of questions arose which were well answered by the PhD students ranging from scholarship information to application to challenges. They also had a few words of caution as to what students must not do while pursuing their PhD in may inevitably delay their achievement of a doctoral degree. Finally, the end result was a group of motivated participants, who set their sights on a potential PhD degree sometime in the future!

We would like to thank our Linnaeus University, the Swedish Institute, the organizers and of course our participants and facilitators who had worked together to make this workshop possible.