Dissemination/working hours

PhD students employed at Aarhus University (5+3) are obligated to deliver what corresponds to 840 working hours at the department during their PhD study according to the official PhD regulations. However, all PhD students employed at GSTS are automatically granted one semester’s (140 hours) exemption from the dissemination/work obligation with no reduction in pay.

PhD students enrolled in 3+5 or 4+4 programmes are obligated to deliver 280 working hours per year at the department during part B of their study programme. However, all PhD students employed at GSTS are automatically granted one semester’s (140 hours) exemption from the dissemination/work obligation with no reduction in pay.

Please notice that if you end up with more than the maximum stated number of working hours, this will not grant you any additional pay aside from your PhD salary.

PhD students that are enrolled but not employed at Aarhus University are not obligated to deliver 840 hours, but they must still meet the dissemination requirement that is a mandatory part of the PhD programme.

Dissemination and obligated work are NOT the same. However, if you carry out obligated work that is related to dissemination, e.g. teaching, supervision, this can count as dissemination.

It is recommended the students’ obligated work are heavier at the beginning of the PhD study.

Dissemination activities

In general, dissemination can be viewed as different activities meant to communicate different disciplinary material to stakeholders at different levels of experience.

In order to ensure a fair distribution of the PhD students obligated work, and in order to ensure that the PhD students get a broad exposure to different kinds of dissemination-related tasks, the following principles applies to PhD students enrolled at the Department of Biological and Chemical Engineering:

1. The PhD student must deliver a certain number of working hour to the department during their PhD study. The exact number of hours is specified in each student's excel file.
2. The main PhD supervisor for each PhD student has together with the educational advisor the overall responsibility for ensuring that the PhD student completes a fair amount of teaching activities and that it is either relevant for the subject of the PhD student or is basic knowledge.
3. In addition, the main PhD supervisor is responsible for ensuring that the PhD student gets experience with different kinds of teaching-related tasks, e.g. supervision, lectures, design and correction of exercises, workshops, assessment and peer-reviewing. This is essential in order to give the PhD student the proper knowledge to decide upon the future career path after completing the PhD study. PhD students should never be given full responsibility for a course unless they have had the necessary didactic training.

The activities that can be included under dissemination are:

BCE teaching (approx. 200hrs)*

• Help prepare a course or a lecture (of different sizes)
• Giving lectures in different courses.
• Preparing exercises or other materials for a course.
• Correcting exercises for a course and giving written or oral feedback to the students.
• Assisting students with exercises or with lab work as course instructor.
• General marketing activities towards young students, e.g. as a part of AU activities at high schools (det rullende universitet)

* The PhD will get hours for both direct teaching and preparation time (Lecture: preparation time is 2,5hrs per 1 hour lecture; exercises: time for preparation and giving feedback to assignments is 1,5hrs per 1 hour lecture)

Supervision

• Co-supervisor for group work at different semesters.
• Co-supervisor for BSc
• Co-supervisor for MSc theses.
• Internship 

Dissemination related to own research

• Presentation of research results internally and externally to companies or at conferences. (poster or talks)
• Writing texts for patent applications.
• Creation of web pages, book chapters or manuals communicating disciplinary material.
• Communication with media stakeholders such as journalists.
• Internal coordination in connection with the PhD committee or the yearly PhD event.
• Assistance in research activities that are not directly relevant for the PhD research, for example in project deliverables or project applications.

The number of hours for each dissemination activity needs to be fair and this will be determined by the
members of the Department's PhD committee and the educational advisor.

Be aware that the actual writing of articles is not considered dissemination. It is a part of the research itself.