[Prorat] ProRat newsletter

[Vera Lay <vera.lay AT prorat.tu-freiberg.de>]

Dear PhD-Students,

it's about time to reactivate this newsletter and we have a couple of information for you. 

1) new Prorat

 After the elections in December last year, the new Prorat formed. Find out who we are: http://tu-freiberg.de/prorat/members

 

 2) PhD Regulations and Rigorosum

 In order to adapt the PhD regulations at TUBAF, new PhD regulations are discussed. Each faculty board will soon decide on the regulations. Basically, no severe changes will occur. However, we wanted to use the time and abolish the Rigorosum from the PhD regulations. Freiberg is one of last universities in Germany where a Rigorosum (or replacement) is still mandatory. We think it is not up-to-date anymore. Unfortunately, people who are deciding could not be convinced. Hence, the Rigorosum will still be a part of our PhD regulations for the coming years.

 

 3) short term contracts

 Short term contracts (< six months) are a severe problem especially for young researchers. Some politicians are aware of that and the topic is widely discussed, also by Mittelbauinitinativen". A new law "WissenschaftszeitGesetz" will be discussed in German parliament hopefully in summer. Details of how contracts and so on will be organised are still unsure. Although the new law is on the way,  we want to start to improve working conditions for PhD students, i.e. young researchers already now. Hence, we wanted to introduce basic guidelines for the university to prevent unjustified short contracts. For this, we made a proposal to Senat. However, the Senat decided against the proposal. You can find details about that in Simon's report: http://www.physik.tu-freiberg.de/~senat . 

 Nevertheless, we are continuing work on this front. For this we need your help. Do you have short contracts? Or know anyone affected? We will set up a questionare and would be happy to collect as many cases as possible.

 

 4) PhD council networking

 A networking meeting of eastern German PhD councils was initiated. Representatives from Dresden, Freiberg, Jena, Halle and Leipzig participated. This is not only to learn from each other but also to coordinate projects of common interest, e.g. plans to stop policy of short term contracts.  

 

5) Freiberg PhD conference

We started to organise a PhD conference here at TUBAF. The aim is to allow PhD students of all faculties to have a comfortable meeting to present and discuss their work and get together. More details will follow. 

6) ORTE/PhD day 20th of May

Next Wednesday there will be the PhD day http://blogs.hrz.tu-freiberg.de/grafa/2015/05/07/very-close-4-promovierendentag-am-20-mai-2015/  . Members of the ProRat will be there between 10 am and 4 pm. 

These are the main topics we were/are currently discussing. If you have any questions, other ideas in your mind or just want to join our discussion, you are welcome to contact us. Either by writing an email at prorat-intern AT tu-freiberg.de, by joining our monthly meetings or by visiting us at the ORTE/Promovierendentag (20th of May).

Best wishes,

your ProRat

-- 
ProRat TU Bergakademie Freiberg
http://tu-freiberg.de/prorat
prorat-intern AT stunet.tu-freiberg.de