Inaugural Seminar - Doctoral Retreat

At D-MTEC, we value a comprehensive learning journey for our doctoral candidates. A cornerstone of our doctoral education is the Inaugural Seminar, a three-day event. In 2019, the retreat took place in Kloster Kappel am Albis, with 30 first-year doctoral students. As an innovative learning and networking experience, the retreat combines informal get-togethers with inputs, workshops, and interactive sessions. The participants embark on their comprehensive learning journey at D-MTEC and discuss with professors, assistant professors, scientific staff, and alumni about state-of-the-art research methods, reading and publishing strategies, teaching challenges, supervising master students, and career opportunities after their doctorate. We introduce the D-MTEC research collaboration award and encourage participants to engage in interdisciplinary exchanges. The retreat is an excellent opportunity to network with faculty members, the doctoral services, other doctoral candidates, and alumni.

The course is a unique initiative to onboard junior researchers into the D-MTEC culture. We give them a chance to develop peer support networks and we sow the seeds for future cross-chair collaborations. Over the past years, about 70% of all newly enrolled D-MTEC doctoral students participated in the retreat. We value social interactions in the evenings and take participants on a hike to allow for conversations and interactions during outdoor activities. In the inputs and workshops, we use a wide range of didactic methods to foster soft skills developments and research method training (e.g. mapping participants, audience interaction polls, facilitated Q&A sessions, science communication in the "#tweetyourthesis" workshop). 

Over the past years, we noticed that the retreat is important for participants to build trusting relationships with our doctoral services (Judith Holzheimer). We see that students find it easier to approach professors outside of their own group after the event, and see that this opportunity is being used. In addition, we see benefits for the participating faculty who rarely meet on other occasions for such informal exchanges. Based on feedback from previous years, we observe that the strong social networking opportunities have lasting positive effects on their doctoral journeys. They always find an open door and can approach the doctoral services with their questions, challenges, and concerns. Cultivating openness and respect among doctoral candidates and faculty over the years ¨C through events like the Doctoral Retreat ¨C also reflects in the VSETH survey that found D-MTEC to be the ETH Department in which doctoral students least perceive an abuse of power from their professor (AVETH Survey on Supervision of Doctoral Students, 2018, p. 23).

We value a systematic onboarding of the participants to both the ETH support system for doctoral students and the support system at ETH for employees. Achieving clarity on these matters greatly reduces the students¡¯ time to navigate the complex map of contact points at ETH. Most importantly, the participants find time to develop professional friendships. Their peers encourage them to become active in the Scientific Staff Association at D-MTEC and in AVETH and share their experiences of how to address possible challenges during their doctorate and in the context of their doctoral supervision.