I’d bought a beautiful summer dress with matching shoes and written a speech. Last week, I attended a PhD defence not as a journalist but as a paranimf, a ceremonial assistant. And not in Maastricht, but in Nijmegen, where my brother was defending his PhD on the impact of mindfulness on teacher well-being in Dutch intermediate vocational education. Teachers struggle with stress and high workload. It turns out that mindfulness has a positive impact, even after nine months, but a mindfulness course alone is not enough. If the school itself doesn’t take action to make teachers’ lives easier – think setting up a designated meeting room, adjusting their timetables, or even just repairing broken equipment – high workload will continue to be a problem.
Right outfit
This was my first up-close-and-personal experience of a traditional Dutch PhD defence and everything it involves. Even just finding a date that works for everyone who needs to be there – the promotor (supervisor), the co-promotors, the doctoral committee members: all people with busy schedules – is a challenge. Then there’s arranging the printing of the dissertation, the reception afterwards, the party (a festive lunch, in this case), the rehearsal ceremony, a press summary of the findings, the right outfit, and so on.
Nerves
Surprisingly, my new heels were comfortable right away. The PhD candidate’s nerves were manageable, as far as I could judge. I’ve rarely paid such close attention to an academic ceremony. I couldn’t always tell how difficult the questions were, though. Every time my brother slipped up and forgot to address a committee member as “hooggeleerde opponens” (“highly learned opponent”) before answering a question, my fellow paranimf and I nudged each other. We kept a close eye on the time. Ten more minutes – maybe one more question, two more at most. And then the beadle entered the room to speak the magic words. Hora est.
Pile of dissertations
After years of diligent research work, it was done. Happy faces gathered outside the room. From the corner of my eye, I spotted a pile of dissertations for anyone who wanted to read more than just the acknowledgements. And I wondered, who’s actually paying for all this? The candidate pays for the post-defence party, of course, but who covers the dissertation printing costs, the reception afterwards, the dinner with the doctoral committee? From what I heard around me, it’s not the same for all PhD candidates (and definitely not for external PhD candidates) in the Netherlands. During our editorial meeting last Monday, we wondered what the situation is like in Maastricht. We have no idea. We’ll look into it.