Dr/THS

Dear PhD students at KTH,

We are getting some questions and reports of concerns and issues, that have arisen due to the COVID-19 situation. We like to gather all of those in one place. We have, therefore, in a similar manner to what THS has already done (but they focused solely on courses, directed at students), constructed a survey to collect input from PhD students. The PhD Chapter would like every PhD student at KTH to be able to express concerns and give feedback so that we can also raise the issues and questions in higher instances at KTH, as part of our continuing dialogue.

Please take a couple of minutes to express how the COVID-19 situation has impacted your PhD studies by filling out this survey: https://forms.gle/9STyMD4L7QeKDFCJA

Some of you might be getting different/new work tasks and are helping out with the transition to digital education. In light of that, the PhD Chapter encourages all PhD students to keep a log on how much time you spend on departmental duties (with short descriptions on what the time was spent on). By doing so, it will be easier for you to report the time, and, if needed, make changes to the prognosis. Please also note that according to Högskoleförordningen, a PhD student is allowed to spend a maximum of 20% on departmental duties, talk to your supervisor/director of studies if you feel you might exceed that.

We also, once again, like to remind you to keep updated on the information given by KTH which is updated very frequently:
https://intra.kth.se/en/campus/sakerhet/kris/corona/kth-om-covid-19-corona-1.965904

Today is the PhD Chapter’s 40th birthday!

Happy Birthday to us and a thank you to all PhD students who in any way have been engaged in the PhD Chapter during all these years! We look forward to many more years to come!

Even if we in the PhD Chapter board wanted to give you all a slice of cake to celebrate, this picture of a cake will have to do for now. We look forward to a time when we can welcome you back to our chapter hall T-centralen, and have a “Birthday pub”, but sadly that will not be today.

Just because you now use your own coffee machines, don’t forget that you can still socialize, have a coffee break and talk to your colleagues. We know some departments have already set up virtual “Fika-rooms” and you can of course do that too. If you have an idea about a virtual event you would like to host, don’t hesitate to send us an email and we might be able to help.

As a student and employee of KTH, you can use Zoom to host virtual meetings (also more informal ones, such a fika-break meeting), you can read more about it here: https://www.kth.se/…/work-onli…/webbmoten-zoom/zoom-1.893273

Lastly, stay updated on the Corona-situation, the information is updated frequently:

KTH’s information: https://intra.kth.se/…/angaende-det-nya-coronaviruset-covid…
THS’s information: https://ths.kth.se/corona

As promised, here is the agenda for the chapter meeting next Friday!

Chapter meeting agenda 20200306

During the meeting we will serve some snacks, please sign up here in order to make sure you get some.

For more information about the meeting, check out our post about the call for the meeting.

We would like to thank all 604 PhD students who have taken their time to fill out our survey! We have now drawn the five lucky winners of the gift cards and notified them through their email (so check your inbox for an email from board@dr.kth.se to see if you are one of them).

At the beginning of the new year, the PhD Chapter board will work with analyzing and reporting the results.

We have, however, already seen that some of you wished we would organize more sports events. If you are in the mood for some winter sports, please join us on Wednesday, when we go ice-skating! There are still some spots left, use this link to sign-up and learn more on our facebook page.

Happy Holidays from the PhD Chapter!