Every mid-October, in the Helga Eng building, researchers at The Faculty of Educational Sciences and other faculties at the University of Oslo are offered a wide range of courses in core academic skills, supplementing their formalised PhD programme.
“It is a fantastic opportunity for professional development, especially for young researchers, and also an occasion to get to know good colleagues across the entire faculty better”, says Week 42 hostess, Astrid Marie Jorde Sandsør, Research Dean at the faculty.
“A wonderful opportunity”
We asked some former participants what they found valuable in previous years.
“For me, Week 42 has been an important opportunity to develop skills and reflections that are often not covered in formal PhD education”, says researcher Diego Gonzalez Campos with the Center for Educational Measurement, who was just awarded His Majesty The King's Gold Medal 2025 for his outstanding doctoral work.
“I have learned a great deal about project management and how to better structure academic texts. At the same time, it has been a wonderful opportunity to get to know new colleagues and build a network”, he says.
PhD candidates Silje Leifsen at The Department of Teacher Education and School Research and Hannah Mülder at The Department of Education agree:
“I’ve gained inspiration and insights from experts on searching information, organising and sharing data, presenting, writing and much more! I felt for example confirmed and inspired to keep and further develop my way of using metaphors and graphics to get my point across!”, says Mülder.
“The event provides the opportunity to build career competencies that are not offered in other academic courses. I highly recommend it!”, says Leifsen.
"It's difficult to choose"
But that was the past. What are they looking forward to in this year's programme?
“It is difficult to choose, but I am particularly looking forward to learning more about self-management and academic storytelling. Both sessions offer a great opportunity for me to develop – both in terms of how to make time for writing and to further improve my writing”, says Leifsen.
Campos is particularly excited to learn more about the next steps in his research career.
“For example, I find the session ‘From PhD to Professor’ and the one about how to apply for prestigious research funding exciting opportunities to develop new skills”, he says.
“Doing a PhD is much more than reading literature and conducting your own research by yourself”
“There are several of the courses I am looking forward to, but perhaps especially the one on ‘be(coming) a supervisee’ that Hannah Mülder will be leading. This is particularly exciting for me as I also research supervision and engage with various supervisory relationships myself”, says Lara Aref, PhD candidate at The Department of Education and a member of the UiODoc board.
It’s no surprise, then, that Hannah Mülder herself is interested in process learning:
“Doing a PhD is much more than reading literature and conducting your own research by yourself. It is a journey of becoming a researcher – in finding one's own research values and practices, ways of collaborating, communicating, thinking and structuring”, she says.
News: academic hospitality, impact, and the researcher as a citizen
Professor Tone Dyrdal Solbrekke, from The Department of Education, is one of this year’s new contributors to Week 42. She highlights the importance of creating a supportive academic environment for early-career researchers:
“I hope that young and new researchers will experience an atmosphere of academic hospitality. I hope they will meet staff and peers who welcome them and want to learn from them, as well as they may learn from us senior staff and researchers.”
Solbrekke emphasises that professional development is not just about individual achievements, but also about the collective responsibility of institutions to cultivate spaces for mutual learning.
Two other new contributors this year are Ratib Lekhal and Ole Andreas Kvamme. Lekhal will explore how researchers can increase the impact and visibility of their work, while Kvamme invites participants to reflect on the normative foundations of research and the responsibilities scholars have in society.
Networking and inspiration at Kjellern
New this year is also the Thursday night event at Kjellern pub, featuring panel discussions with successful researchers sharing their tips on how to navigate life in academia. It’s also a great opportunity to connect with colleagues from across UiO.
“Often we hear about networking and relation-building as something PhD students should be doing. Here, we put this in practice as early career researchers can hear about the stories less told, and also have an opportunity to meet others in the same situation,” says Mari Elken, one of the organisers behind the chill-out event.
Among the panelists is this year’s winner of the UiO Research Award, Carl Henrik Knudsen. Stay tuned for more updates on the full programme – and don’t miss this chance to eavesdrop!
Check out this year’s full programme! We expect waiting lists on most events, so be sure to register to your favourite courses today!
