Thesis Advisory Committee (TAC)
An integral part of the mentoring concept of HBIGS is the implementation of Thesis Advisory Committees (TACs) that build the ground for the scientific coaching of the PhD work. A mandatory annual TAC monitors the student’s scientific progress and recommends future directions and strategies. The TACs also monitors the PhD student/supervisor relationship, tries to recognize signs of scientific fraud and raise the bar for doctoral researchers to err.
The TAC
The TAC consists of the main supervisor (“FGA”), the second supervisor (“GGA”), and one or two additional members, i.e. 3 or 4 members in total. The TAC members should cover expertise relevant to the student’s project. They can be HBIGS faculty members or external experts from academia or industry. All TAC members must be independent group leaders. As a rule, not all TAC members can be affiliated to the same institute.
Time schedule for the TAC meetings
The first TAC meets within the first 9 months post commencement of the PhD (commencement = “Arbeitsbeginn” as stated on the “Annahme als Doktorand” letter issued by the Faculty of Biosciences). The TAC then meets with the PhD student on an annual basis until the submission of the thesis.
Purpose and Format of TAC meetings
The TAC monitors the student’s scientific progress on an annual basis and recommends future directions and strategies, as well as the structure of the curricular activities. The student presents a short written progress report describing the accomplishments and problems encountered within the past year and proposing solutions to these problems. In addition, the doctoral researcher gives a 20 minute oral presentation of their work.
During the first meeting, the TAC, together with the student, defines provisional benchmarks that will later help judge the progress of the work. This meeting also allows any problems, scientific or other, to be aired and discussed, as appropriate.
The TAC keeps an eye on the time-line of the PhD and recommends a extension, if warranted. In confidential and closed-door discussions with the supervisor and doctoral researcher, respectively, the two additional members assess the supervisor-PhD student relationship. The two additional members will give advice should problems between the doctoral researcher and the supervisor arise. The TAC prepares minutes of the meeting. Both the supervisor and the doctoral researcher can ask for additional TAC meetings.
The students maintain close interactions with their TAC members via discussions and exchange of ideas and results.
