SLU was consistent in breaking the rules

The rules that govern educational process at the Swedish University ofAgricultural Sciences seem to be just and provide a lot of support to a PhD student. If SLU would have followed these rules, the problem with my PhD studies would have never arisen; and even if it would, the solution would be found at once on the level of Department. Why SLU was so consistent in breaking the rules I still cannot explain.

High Educational Ordinance and the Guidelines for research education in the Faculty of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences states that:

A research student shall be employed. The PhD position is a full-time post

Nevertheless, my employment was canceled during the period of my PhD studies, a few months before the thesis were ready! I am still registered as a PhD student and SLU requires me to attend meetings, to update study plan, to analyze data and to write manuscripts without providing conditions for these activities. My PhD project started at October 2008. Despite the absence of supervision, I planned to complete my work in a due time – October 2012. Unpredicted canceling of employment on January 2012, ruined all these plans and even put under question defense of the thesis.

I didn't find in the rules any mention that employment can be canceled during educational period:

Even if the resource shall be withdrawn the special procedure must take place

My employment was terminated without any notice and without explanations. No inquires took place.

Department must 'ensure good environment' and a supervisor shall 'provide support' in and 'continuously monitor' the development of the studies

My part of informing a supervisor about the development of studies was performed well: during the period of October 31, 2005 - December 24, 2011 I sent to my supervisor more than 60 letters with files, which contained the description of experiments, research plans, abstracts, posters and presentations for conferences, as well as raw data, result of analysis, and, finally, article manuscripts; about 40 letters with request for help with statistic and explanations of the problem with data analysis; about 60 letters with proposals on different matters or reports about technical problems. I got answers on about dozen of my letters; and when I did, it was a promise to have a meeting. During all the time of my studies my former supervisor never looked at my lab notebook, never discussed the raw data, and never provided feedback on the results.

Department must ensure that follow-ups of the study plan take place

The project that became my PhD work started at October 2008. The only follow-up of my studies happened on January 2010 and was counted both as an admission to PhD and as a half-time seminar. The 75% follow-up never took place and my questions why it happened so were ignored.

In case of any problem detected the Head of the Department should take an action

Since January 2012 only two meeting were held, both on my calls and only after addressing a request to the SLU top executives. The Head of the Department didn't initiate a single meeting.

Student has rights to change a supervisor and a process must be transparent and unbiased

I reported about the problems with inadequate supervision of my PhD project to the Head of the Department on January 24th 2012 and to the NL Faculty on April 17th 2012. The new supervisors were appointed only on October 18th 2012 with a lag in nine months from the first report.

The new supervisors were appointed without preliminary discussion of the candidates and persons with conflicting interests were imposed.

My request for unbiased supervisors got in reply an outright lies

From: Jan S   Sent: 19 October 2012 18:21   To: Elena K ; Christer B   Cc: Rimvydas V; Marianne C; Martin W; Johan M; Nils H; Lennart J; Pär F; Björn A; Anna A  Subject: RE: Ang.: Supervisior group

Dear Elena,

 It will not be possible to have a main supervisor from another department.

 Best regards,

Professor Jan S

Uppsala Biocenter
Department of Forest Mycology and Plant Pathology
Swedish University of Agricultural sciences
Box 7026, S-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden

The Head of the Department claimed it despite that the rules says:

Conclusions

It became obvious that Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences does not have a proper mechanism of auto-control and I wonder, who will put an end to lawlessness. 

For half a year I was trying to find justice inside SLU, when it didn't work, I sent complaints to the Swedish Agency of Higher Education (Högskoleverket) and few months later to the Equality Ombudsman (Diskrimineringsombudsmannen, DO). The Swedish Agency of Higher Education did not make its verdict yet. The reply from DO will be discussed in the next post.

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