Ph.D. students who are working in one of the 4 philosophy departments of the 4TUs are invited to become members of the 4TU.Ethics Graduate School for the duration of their studies.
The 4TU.Ethics Graduate School aims to provide an excellent research-oriented education for its Ph.D. students, and recognises that they have varying needs (given the diversity of research projects in the Centre) and also often face additional educational requirements (by their local graduate schools). Hence we aim to provide an educational programme that is flexible in terms of content and limited in size while providing robust training for aspiring researchers and professionals in the ethics of technology.
Programme structure
The full programme for a Ph.D. student in the 4TU.Ethics Graduate School consists of five courses of 5 EC each (except the Annual Writing Retreat which is 2.5 EC and can be taken twice to reach 5 EC), two of which (“the core” CC1 and CC2) are mandatory and at least one of which is chosen from a list of ethics of technology courses.
Core courses (CC1 and CC2)
These courses are to provide all Ph.D. students in the 4TU.Ethics Graduate School with a common knowledge and skills base as ethicists of technology. In addition, they serve a social purpose in building the community, since all Ph.D. students of a single cohort will be taking these courses together. For 2018-2021:
- CC1 Ethics of Technology (overview of 4TU.Ethics) 5EC;
- CC2 Annual Writing retreat (relevant to all students, at all times during their Ph.D.) 2.5 EC so taken twice 5 EC.
Listed courses (LC1 – LC8)
These courses allow Ph.D. students to extend their knowledge of ethics of technology, while providing flexibility, in recognition of the differences in project topics and student background. Ph.D. students are required to choose at least one course from a list of courses specified by 4TU.Ethics.
Listed courses for 2018-2021:
- LC1 Philosophy of Risk (TU/e)
- LC2 Philosophy of Responsible Innovation (WUR/TUD)
- LC4 Anticipation and Assessment of Emerging Technologies (UT)
- LC6 Good Technology for Users and Society (UT)
- LC8 Design for Values (TUD)
- LC3 Moral Psychology and Technology (TUD)* offered only until 2019
Further courses
These courses address the individual learning needs of the student, and will often be chosen in relation to the student’s Ph.D. project. The core and listed course have to be supplemented with non-listed courses from the programme of 4TU.Ethics (see Section 3) or other recognised schools on a “whitelist”, currently consisting of:
- Ethics Graduate School
- The Dutch Research School of Philosophy (ozsw.nl), and
- Netherlands Graduate Research School of Science, Technology and Modern Culture (http://www.wtmc.net/)
Other courses can be part of a student’s education programme subject to the rules in Section 2.2.
Other activities
Ph.D. students enrolled in the 4TU.Ethics Graduate School are expected to take part in 4TU.Ethics activities (such as the Annual Ph.D. Day and the Annual Research Day) as well as local activities (such as group seminars and reading groups) that could be considered educational. Although participation in such activities is beneficial and strongly encouraged, we do not formally consider them part of the 4TU.Ethics credit-based education programme.
Membership of 4TU.Ethics Graduate School
In order to provide students with an incentive to complete the full education programme, 4TU.Ethics distinguishes two types of membership for Ph.D. students:
- Full Ph.D. membership for students who (intend to) take the full programme;
- Affiliate Ph.D. membership for a. students who (intend to) take incidental courses with 4TU.Ethics and who are affiliated with one of the 4 departments; b. students from other universities/ departments who can apply for affiliate membership on the basis of their research orientation.
Full membership comes with the following benefits:
- Full members are eligible for 4TU.Ethics support or funding for initiatives such as workshops (affiliate members cannot apply);
- Full members receive a diploma upon completing the programme (affiliate members are not certified by 4TU.Ethics).