Evaluation of DTU's PhD schools and the annual cycle

DTU’s PhD schools continuously evaluate their activities. This is done through the annual reporting complex, the socalled ‘årshjul’/annual cycle. Each year DTU’s departments (PhD schools) prepare rolling four-year strategic plans – ’UdviklingsMål og Virkemidler’, abbrivated ’UMV’. The UMV is discussed and approved at a meeting between DTU’s executive board and the department management. Based on the approved UMV, annual action plans with budgets are prepared. These are discussed with and approved by the executive board together with the department’s annual report.

International evaluations of the PhD schools at DTU
Each year DTU conducts an international evaluation of 3 to 4 PhD schools at DTU. DTU’s organisation of PhD schools implies that each department constitutes a PhD school.

Process for the international evaluation
The evaluation of the PhD schools is part of an overall research evaluation at the department. Each department is evaluated every five years by an international panel of experts appointed by the President of DTU. The panel consists of 4-6 internationally recognised experts at professor level. The purpose of the evaluation is to ensure that the department’s strategy is correct, and that the results of the evaluation are submitted to the Executive Board of DTU and the department's management on a confidential basis.

The evaluation is based on a self-evaluation report as well as a 3-day visit by the expert panel. The self-evaluation report is prepared by the department and is sent to the panel specialists one month before the visit. In the self-evaluation report the department includes a description of the organisation of the PhD programme as well as various statistical information on the research education in general.

During the panel visit the Head of the PhD school gives a review of the PhD programme at the department. The expert panel is also offered the opportunity to meet a representative group of PhD students. The panel is asked to assess for instance the PhD programme, the recruitment procedure, the supervision, completion rate and productivity, as well as to decide whether the PhD theses meet international standards.

After the visit, the panel specialists prepare a report in which observations and recommendations concerning the PhD School are included. At the subsequent UMV-meeting with the Executive Board of DTU, the department is to explain how they have been or will follow-up on the expert panel’s report.

Follow-up on the international evaluation
The result of the international evaluation is presented to DTU’s Executive Board as well as to the Head of the PhD school. Moreover, the Dean of Graduate Studies and International Affairs receives an excerpt of the evaluation, which covers only the PhD programme at DTU.

The Dean of Graduate Studies and International Affairs presents relevant topics to the PhD Committees at DTU as well as to the central PhD administration. He is to ensure that there is a follow-up of any relevant issues in the department’s Action Plan and UMV. The Action Plan and the UMV are DTU's managerial Annual Cycle of Work which should result in the visions which DTU's Board of Governors has stated in DTU's Strategy.