Questions about the mandatory area

What is the cross-departmental academic seminar I need to attend?
During your doctoral studies, you need to regularly attend a seminar that is organised by several group leaders, typically (but not necessarily) from different institutes. Typically in these seminars, external speakers will report on their recent research. Such seminar series are e.g. the Plant Biology Seminars on Tuesday afternoons, or the seminars offered by most Structured Doctoral Programmes. Depending on the rules of your SP, you may or may not have to attend its own seminar, or you may be free to find seminars of your own choice, including online seminars. Importantly, you need to make sure that the “Coordinating Member” (this is often the biologist on the committee) of your doctoral committee is aware of your attendance because she or he will have to certify that you attended at least 20 of such events during your doctoral project (of three to four years), and you will need to present this certificate when submitting your thesis.

Why did we introduce mandatory annual meetings of the doctoral committee?
The doctoral committees were introduced to provide each doctoral candidate with a group of three experts who feel a responsibility to support her or his doctoral project. Also, the members of the committee are potential contacts in case of problems e.g. with the supervisor (such as transparency towards the end of the project regarding what is still required before submission of the thesis, a frequent cause of problems and misunderstandings). However, in many cases, the committees never met, because meetings were not mandatory and the members of the committee were too busy to attend such meetings (in some cases, the supervisors apparently even insisted that the committees should not meet). This is why we made these meetings mandatory. Once a year, you need to meet with your committee, it is a right as much as a duty.
The doctoral candidate is responsible for organising the committee meetings.
You can find a protocol sheet on our homepage under ‘Documents’ which you should fill out together with your committee during the meeting. This minutes sheet will remain with you, please keep it safe. Only send the date when the committee meeting took place to biosciences@uni-muenster.de. Make sure you hold at least one committee meeting annually.
(If you cannot manage to identify a time for all the members to attend, you may also – exceptionally – split the meeting and meet with one of the members separately.) The first meeting should be during the second half of the first year of working on your doctoral project. In this meeting, you should convince the committee members that you have made it your own project (not just that of your supervisor) by bringing in your own ideas and plans. The meeting in the third year serves to define the plan for the final works still required before submitting the thesis. It is important to be as clear and precise as possible in order to avoid misunderstandings. Even if this may not be required by your Structured Doctoral Programme (which sets the rules for the committee meetings), it is best to fix these final works in writing and have them signed by both you and your supervisor, best also by the other members of your committee.

Why did we introduce the mandatory workshop on Good Scientific Practice?
In recent years, fraud and scientific misconduct have been issues broadly discussed in the public. As a scientist (particularly as a scientist with a doctorate), you will have a specific responsibility towards science and society (you will have to make a pledge to this effect when obtaining your final doctoral certificate before you will be allowed to carry the title Dr. rer. nat.). However, while there are set rules for what is correct scientific behaviour and what is not (as e.g. laid down in the Rules for Good Scientific Practice of the DFG), there are also decisions which you will have to take based on values rather than on pure science only. And decisions based on values can differ between different scientists, depending on their point of view. The workshop will help you realise this, and to support you in developing your own point of view, in defining and refining your own values. Of course, your supervisor should be a strong (and hopefully good) role model for you, but you should not simply adopt her or his point of view and values without thinking about them thoroughly. The workshop can only be a start in this important process of developing your own GSP compass.
We regularly offer workshops on good scientific practice. Take a look at our workshop programme.

How do I fulfil the requirement to assist with teaching undergraduate courses in the degree programmes of the Faculty of Biology to the extent of at least 5 SWS?
Typically, your supervisor will offer lab classes to undergraduate or graduate students in which you can easily fulfil your teaching duties (1 SWS = 1 “Semesterwochenstunde” = 1 h of teaching per week during one semester of 15 weeks = 15 h of teaching; 5 SWS = 5 x 15 h = 75 h; only the direct contact time with the students counts, not any time for preparation or evaluation). The teaching should not be the simple face-to-face, one-by-one training of a student in the lab, but should rather involve teaching a small group of students, including teaching them the theoretical background of what they are learning. This is why supervising a student during a Bachelor or Master thesis or during a Research Module (“Forschungs-Modul”) does not count, while teaching in all Bachelor modules and in Advanced Modules (“Fortgeschrittenen-Modul”) of our Master courses does count. (Admittedly, there is a week point here: for different reasons, such as very small size of the research group or of the lab, many Advanced Modules offered by colleagues in the Medical Faculty are in fact simply short Research Modules in which a single student is participating in the research of a doctoral student; if we follow the above reasoning, teaching in a such a module should not count, but it does count for formal reasons, because it is an Advanced Module.) If your supervisor cannot offer you a course in which you can fulfil your teaching duties, it is the responsibility of the Coordinating Member in your committee to help you find opportunities.

Who is the “Coordinating Member” in my doctoral committee and what are her or his duties?
If your supervisor is a member of the Faculty of Biology, she or he is the Coordinating Member. If your supervisor is not a member of the Faculty of Biology, at least one of the other members needs to be. This member (or one of these members) will be the Coordinating Member. She or he is responsible to make sure that the rules of the Faculty of Biology are met.