Week two of the Ljubljana Doctoral Summer School: Diversity and Collaboration
The second week of the Ljubljana Doctoral Summer School brought several new courses, students and professors, thereby adding a fresh perspective to the programme. We had an opportunity to talk with Professor Adamantios Diamantopoulos (Advanced Structural Equation Modelling, University of Vienna, Austria) and Professor Sousa Rui (Case Study Research: Design, Execution and Publication, Catholic University of Portugal, Católica Porto Business School, Portugal).
1. The Ljubljana Doctoral Summer School brings PhD students, post-doctoral students, academics and professionals together. What motivated you to join the programme?
Professor Rui Sousa: I am from Portugal in Western Europe. Coming here is a great opportunity to meet people from parts of the world you don’t usually get a chance to meet. It’s a different opportunity compared to other types of networks and events you attend. On the leisure side: Ljubljana is a wonderful place, a very enjoyable city, well-organised, with nice people. And also, it’s about the whole concept of summer schools: while still a working environment, it is in a way more informal, you can have more open discussions with students and engage in some teaching formats that are not always possible mid-semester. On top of that, the students are here because they want to be, not because they are forced to be, so they have different levels of motivation and engagement. And, overall, it’s a nice experience.
Professor Diamantopoulos: My personal motivation was that I was already teaching in the doctoral programme at the FELU. Basically, some courses offered here by the doctoral summer school are natural extensions of the courses I’m teaching within the doctoral programme. But they are also for the broader interest of students from outside Ljubljana. This was how I became involved and I have been doing it for several years now.
2. How would you describe your overall experience, especially with the course(s), academic and organisational staff and students? What are your thoughts on the in-class dynamics as well as other social events and programmes on offer?
Professor Rui Sousa: I think everything is running smoothly. It’s an intense week; we have 4 hours a day for five days. We do have to mix lecture elements with group work and have spaces where students can also think for themselves a little, because otherwise you don’t have time to digest all the material and it’s too intense. This makes the teaching format more enjoyable for both us and the students.
Professor Diamantopoulos: I think the doctoral summer school has always been very professionally organised, it runs very smoothly. And I think it’s very important that it has always been a very positive atmosphere here with regard to both its organisation and administration, including the social activities that get the faculty and the students together. And also what is quite nice is that the students, at least those I’m teaching, are highly motivated since otherwise they would not be taking a course like this. They are very commitment, very motivated, they participate a lot and ask questions. It is a very lively atmosphere in the classroom, everybody is having a good time.
3. How do you see development of the research network through this Summer School and what, in your opinion, is the biggest value of this programme?
Professor Rui Sousa: In my particular case – my research area is operations management, I don’t tend to meet too many students from that area. I don’t see creating connections in terms of research. It’s more getting to know people from other parts of the world with their different approaches, possibly looking at different questions or problems. I wonder if something can be done to make those networking links more effective? Perhaps, one thing comes to mind: if you do have people in your school working in areas like those of the guest teachers, you might try setting up some meetings in advance or just let the guest teachers know who in your school is working on related areas and maybe get some discussions going. In my case, given my area, for which I think you don’t have many people here doing what I do, I haven’t got that kind of attraction so much.
Prof Diamantopoulos: I think the programme’s greatest value for the participants is the networking opportunities they obtain. Lot of students have different stages of their PhDs, for example, and face similar problems. A summer school like this allows students to get in touch and actually discover ideas and bounce ideas off each other. And sometimes they also find topics of common interest and may want to undertake some kind of collaborative research. From that point of view, there is an additional benefit for the participants over and above actually taking the course and acquiring the knowledge the course has to offer. I think this is very important. Further, they can also get quite a lot of hints on how to deal with specific problems. They meet people who are actually quite experienced and have faced these kinds of problems before during the review and publication process.
4. What would you define as your biggest personal takeaway, do you have any suggestions for improvements, and to whom would you recommend this educational programme?
Professor Rui Sousa: This year, I found the students more knowledgeable. I’m teaching case study methods, and the students were more knowledgeable in research processes in general and more at the same level. This is my third year teaching at the doctoral summer school. I kind of see this in other places in Europe as well, this more homogeneous standardisation. PhD programmes look more or less the same everywhere, so you are looking at more or less the same kind of training. It pleasant to see that not only your programme but programmes across Europe are actually improving in the level of training PhD students and I think we now find much better students overall due to these programmes. This is my main observation.
Professor Diamantopoulos: For me, I always find it very interesting and interactive working with a diverse group of students, particularly those from different countries and from different areas to what I’m teaching. It is this diversity, I would say, that is the big takeaway. In terms of improvement: quite honestly, I think the programme is more or less optimally organised. Most courses run in the mornings until lunch time and I think that for advanced courses that’s more than enough for one day. People need some time to reflect and also to have a little social activity outside the classroom and I think it would be too much to a have more intensive course. I also think the doctoral summer school is very flexible in terms of offering different courses over several weeks in July. That suits the schedules of most students and staff and faculty. My impression has been that some people may have been staying over for multiple weeks. I can’t really say that there is something I would change at this particular time: If it works, don’t fix it!
Iva Drvarič, Efnews
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