Assessing applicants for PhD-positions: How to pick the right one?

Summary, in English

This study focuses on the assessment and

selection of applicants for doctoral positions. The empirical

data was gathered through a survey among faculty staff at

Lund University, Sweden. The findings are also contrasted

against the literature within the subject area, which is

surprisingly scarce. One interesting finding of the survey is the

frequent use of interviews and infrequent use of other

assessment methods, such as personality tests or tasks, to assess

applicants. Further, interviews are believed by the respondents

to have a high predictive value on the applicants’ performance

in a doctoral program, despite doubts in the literature. These

results seem to be in contrast with the experience and common

practice outside academia. This might be attributed to the fact

that all doctoral recruitments are carried out by supervisors

and co-supervisors, who are usually not professionally trained

in assessing and selecting applicants -

• Author: Jonas Johansson; Ivar Örn Benediktsson; Bjarne Husted
• Department/s: Industrial Electrical Engineering and Automation; Quaternary Sciences; Division of Fire Safety Engineering
• Publishing year: 2014
• Language: English
• Publication/Series: Pedagogiska inspirationskonferensen LTH
• Volume: 8
• Full text: - 170 kB; Download statistics
• Document type: Conference paper
• Publisher: Lund University
• Topic: Educational Sciences
• Keywords: Assessing; Recruiting; Selecting; Survey; PhD; Doctoral; Graduate; Student; Higher Education
• Conference name: LTH:s 8:e pedagogiska inspirationskonferens, 2014
• Conference date: 2014-12-17 - 2014-12-17
• Conference place: Lund, Sweden
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 2003-377X; ISSN: 2003-3761