The University of Twente will abolish the ‘cum laude’ designation for all PhD degrees from the next calendar year. The awarding of this award, intended for PhD research of “exceptional scientific quality”, is not transparent and is also “systematically disadvantageous” for female PhD students, the university wrote on Wednesday. a message on its website. The Enschede university is the first in the Netherlands to take such a measure.
Rector Magnificus Tom Veldkamp says that the main reason for adjusting the rules is that the university wants an “open, transparent method of assessment” so that PhD students can also determine for themselves whether their research has progressed far enough and is good enough to defend before a committee.
The most striking measure is the abolition of the ‘cum laude’ designation. Why did you have to take it?
“Because we have established that the criteria for arriving at a cum laude assessment are not objective. We have seen that the cum laudes awarded are not evenly distributed across the various disciplines, across supervisors and across gender. And it was not necessarily the case that the best dissertations received the cum laude assessment.
“If you determine that cum laude does not go to the highest 5 percent as intended, then you either have to change the procedure or you have to stop it. Of course, we looked around to see if there were alternatives that are better and more objective. Our conclusion is that there is no good solution.”
So you can conclude that the dissertations awarded cum laude do not always belong to the best 5 percent, but you cannot find an objective criterion to assess whether they actually belong to the top 5 percent?
“No, that’s right. We do see the patterns, the clustering around disciplines, people and also the gender bias who point out that not the top 5 percent actually receive a cum laude. This has a lot to do with the subjective nature on which the cum laude is ultimately awarded. The first filter is the promoter, who must nominate someone. Then there is the committee that determines whether someone belongs to the top 5 percent. And that is exactly the problem, because how do you measure that? How do you quantify that? What is the difference between pure-disciplinary research or interdisciplinary research or multidisciplinary research? How do you measure the contributions of someone who is doing a PhD on publications with multiple authors? These are very difficult, complicated factors to weigh. The promoter is often a co-author of publications. Then you may find yourself in a situation where the butcher inspects his own meat.
“What we have now done is ask for a chapter in the dissertation that explains what exactly the contribution of the PhD candidate is to the publication, if that publication has multiple authors.
“We want to move towards a different form of excellence. Now it is very much focused on the individual. But science is done with a team. Instead of investing a lot of effort in looking for a way to reach the 5 percent best theses I prefer to put my energy into appreciating people who also work together in teams.”
The press release announcing the measures stated that research shows that men are twice as likely to receive a cum laude award as women. Is that also a reason to abolish the designation?
“That is one of the arguments, but not actually the main reason. We want everyone, regardless of gender or origin, to receive an equal, transparent assessment.”
The university will continue to award the designation in the bachelor’s phase. Is it less problematic there?
“In the bachelor’s phase, the assessment is based on a series of grades. There is a whole protocol with which someone gets an eight or a nine for an exam. That is really different from defending the dissertation before a committee. There is an element of taste in that.”
How have the students who are currently working on PhD research at the UT reacted?
“They find it disappointing.”
And the scientists who have already obtained their PhD from the UT? They are proud of their cum laude assessment and now their own university says: it was awarded on the basis of a system that was so unfair that we must now abolish it.
“I can imagine that that does not seem pleasant. Look, as far as those people who have previously received a cum laude are concerned: they were good promotions anyway. The problem lies in that 5 percent. What we are actually saying: it is especially not fair for the people who wrongly received the designation. not have received.”
The UT is the first and currently only university in the Netherlands to do this. Are you putting your PhD students at a disadvantage in a highly competitive environment?
“You might think so at first glance. But in practice, the supervisor’s reference is ultimately decisive for people who want to continue in science. The playing field is international and in many countries no cum laude is awarded at all. In many bodies, such as European projects, this is not taken into account. It really is about what you have actually achieved.”
For professors with the ‘ius promovendi’, the right to assess PhD research, it will take some getting used to all those transparent rules.
“Some of them don’t like this. But the argumentation to arrive at a judgment is now made transparent. And therefore in any case less subjective than it was.
“I have served on PhD committees myself. There have been times when we felt a lack of clear guidelines. Then the assessments in the committee were compared and fine-tuned. Last year we tightened our criteria at the UT. We no longer want the people in the PhD committee to know each other’s score. We have introduced a secret ballot.”
To peer pressure to counteract?
“Yes.”
You yourself have been promoted.
“Certainly, in agricultural and environmental sciences in Wageningen.”
Cum laude?
“No.”
Also read
Half of PhD students are women, but they rarely receive cum laude honors
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