The rules are plenty and the PhD students and their supervisors are responsible for knowing and applying the rules. You are at any time welcome to contact the head of programme, Kristian G. Olesen, kgo@cs.aau.dk, to point you to the relevant rules and their interpretation. PhD students are also advised to ask their department’s PhD secretary for help on administrative issues.
Study Plans
The 2-months study plan and the 12-months study plan are important documents that are crucial in keeping all involved informed, committed, and on track. The study plans should adhere to the provided template. That means that the plans must use the same (sub)section numbers and letters and include all subsections.
11 Month Status Seminar
To ensure that potential problems are caught early in the Ph.D. study, a status seminar must be held not later than 11 months after the start of the Ph.D. study. Before the seminar, a draft of the 12-months study plan must be prepared. The seminar must be attended by at least the Ph.D. student, the supervisor(s), one permanent faculty member from the same research group, and one permanent faculty member from another research group. The latter may – as an exception - come from the same research group in case (s)he represents a different research perspective. The head of programme also attends the seminar, if possible. The seminar takes approximately one and a half hour. The Ph.D. student presents the project, including results so far, and future plans. This typically takes 30-40 minutes and is followed by discussion and feedback.
The invited faculty members and the supervisor fills out the provided template for the status seminar assessment report including a short summary of the feedback and of how the draft study plan should be updated to reflect it. The report is typically drafted by the supervisor and approved by the two opponents.
The Ph.D. student then revises the 12-months study plan based on the comments. The report from the status seminar must be appended to the 12-months study plan before it is submitted in phdmanager.dk.