PhD council

The PhD council is an informal body that represents the PhD students’ interests and strives to build a vibrant PhD student community.
The scope of the PhD council is three-fold:

• The PhD council appoints PhD student representatives who fight for the interests of PhD students at meetings conducted by UHasselt’s board of directors, faculty and department councils and management teams. In addition, representatives are also appointed for:
  • Doctoral school council & VLIR workgroup doctoral schools
  • Food commission
  • Library commission
  • Council for student facilities
• The PhD council organizes informal bi-monthly meetings. Any PhD student can attend these meetings provided that they sign up as member. We start each meeting with updates from our representatives and then continue with relevant topics brought up by our members. These can be about just anything related to the work, life and struggles of a PhD student at UHasselt, ranging from doctoral school and university policies to practical organisational issues at the department level or to the supplying of food in the cafeteria. Wherever needed, these issues are communicated to the responsible department at UHasselt by the council's representatives. Every council member - whether they take up a mandate or not - is thus informed about current affairs and can spread this knowledge amongst colleagues.
• The PhD council aims at creating a PhD student community. We wish to do that by organizing community building fun activities such as after-work drinks once a month. We strive to create a safe environment where PhD students can relax, bond and share their experiences.

The PhD council is endorsed by UHasselt’s board of directors to support a broad and strong engagement of all PhD students in the university's policymaking. We attain this by regularly bringing together all PhD representatives and (a priori without restrictions) all interested PhD students in one entity to:

• stimulate the exchange of policy information amongst PhD students and provide them with a consultative body;
• unite the PhD representatives under a common strategy and streamline our communication with the management of the UHasselt and its doctoral schools;
• appoint representatives for all superordinate mandates not bound to a specific doctoral school or university substructure (e.g. faculty, department, …).

As such, the PhD council represents all PhD students and defends their rights, while aiming to maintain a healthy and productive relationship with the management of UHasselt and its doctoral schools.

Do you have interesting ideas or opinions which could contribute to a strong PhD community within Hasselt University?
Or do you want to be added to the PhD council's mailing list?
Then share your voice and become a member of the PhD Council!

For questions, remarks, suggestions, please send an e-mail to phdcouncil@uhasselt.be or contact one of our members:

• Seppe Croonen: seppe.croonen@uhasselt.be
• Jeremy Chouchoulis: jeremy.chouchoulis@uhasselt.be
• Lisa Koutsoviti-Koumeri: lisa.koutsoviti@uhasselt.be

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