I should note that I have heard some interesting comments and remarks on my recent post on the life of Danish ph.d.student. Karlsbjerg makes an interesting comparison with the U.S. ph.d. and has a good analysis of why the Danish ph.d.might seem so frustrating:
"In short, the Danish PhD model is very unstructured, which brings along all sorts of stresses because there are many subprojects and tasks that you must do at some point during the three year project time, but you only have independent control over very few of these subprojects and tasks. The rest are coordinated with a multitude of other people (colleagues, students, project partners at other universities, interviewees, etc.), other institutions, schedules, financial issues, etc".
A blogging lecturer wrote and told me he had pointed his ph.d.students to the blog. He also wrote that I wish I could say that it gets better when you move up to a regular faculty position, but it doesn't - and I'm sure he is right, judging from what I have seen and heard around me...
Torill writes some nice words about the online ph.d.scholars surrounding her - and also comments on the finishing stress most of us seem to suffer from, bodies giving up on us (Get better with your back, Torill - and you are NOT slower and less brilliant than the rest of us!)

I guess, what I wanted to obtain by writing things out (except from off-loading some of the stress) was to emphasise that jumping on the ph.d.-wagon is not as much a question of choosing a job as it is a question of choosing an all encompassing style of life and that one should, if possible in advance, be aware of the consequence of this choice. When that is said and done, I do not regret my choice. I would not have the same opportunities of persuing my interests in any other job and I would not have the same freedom to choose when and where to work - and almost most importantly I would not have met all the brilliant people I work with, nationally and internationally, now. And, I am mainly satisfied with being here at ITU - I have some open & kind colleagues in general and much more influence on the state of affairs than I would have, had I stayed at University of Copenhagen. From the responses I have gotten, I don't think life as a ph.d. in general is much more different other places in Scandinavia; perhaps I have just spent more time help building up the place than is normal at older institutions and this I subjected myself to voluntarily. The problems lie mainly with the Danish Ph.d. programme definition as such (as Jan also points too) rather than within a specific institution. I believe you can only change the systems by contesting them and talking openly about the effects they have on us, from both a short- and a longterm perspective.

# posted by Lisbeth at: 23:24