Evaluation and improvement of the KID-system spring 2011
In 2005 the Board of Doctoral Education introduced KID-funding to increase the faculty-funded part of doctoral education at Karolinska Institutet. KID-funding has been announced for 11 semesters. Evaluations of the KID-process are ongoing continuously and a number of revisions and adjustments have been made since the first announcement. Spring 2011 KID-process was reviewed again in order to investigate the outcomes and impacts of past changes and to identify further needs for improvements in the current system.
The following was analyzed at the KID-office and in collaboration with Statisticon (external statistical consultants):
- Current normalization procedure and its effects
- Assessment scale
- Advantages and disadvantages of priority groups / assessment panels
- Adequate number of assessors /application
- Proposals for improved assessment system
We have also investigated how the KID-PhD students were recruited (considering KID-projects granted spring and autumn 2010), number of KID-grants/supervisor, the work of the priority groups and their impact on the grading and progress of KID-PhD students.
To gain even better understanding of the process, strengths and weaknesses as well as further suggestions for improvement, we have in a websurvey asked assessors, who assessed the KID-applications spring 2011, about preferences regarding priority groups, restrictions of the KID-grants per supervisor and the number of announcements /year.
Parallel to this extensive evaluation, there is a continuous monitoring and control ongoing to improve and simplify administrative procedures and processes, manage data and applications at the KID-office.
With the evaluation results as a basis and following Statisticons recommendations for improvements, the Board of Doctoral Education has on 8 June 2011 decided to implement following changes in the KID-system from autumn 2011 round:
- A new normalization procedure
- A new grading scale of 1-5 points
- Reduced number of priority groups
The KID-steering group is assigned to work continuously with the design and decisions about details of the assessment process based on the above principle decision.
