6th Annual PRIDE Conference 2024
3. – 4. April 2024: The 6th Annual PRIDE Conference is held at the University of Zurich, Switzerland
How will AI impact Doctoral Education? The Future is a BOT (Beyond our Touch)
Introduction
Artificial intelligence (AI) is not just a buzzword anymore, it is fundamentally reshaping the higher education landscape, with AI writing bots already disrupting academic text production. As we embrace this transformative technology, key questions arise.
In doctoral education, AI’s impact extends beyond research and academic writing, potentially impacting the way in which research-based training will be shaped and organised in the future. While the essence of PhD programmes revolves around cultivating “creative, critical, autonomous, and responsible intellectual risk-takers”, the question looms: will AI enhance or undermine this objective?
AI’s reach extends to supervision and support systems. Relieving scholars from routine tasks and empowering them to engage in truly innovative endeavours can offer the possibility for increased productivity and, potentially, higher quality outputs. Yet, ethical and responsible usage need to be considered critically.
Furthermore, AI’s impact reaches into recruitment processes in academia and beyond. Will it cast a shadow of uncertainty on future career prospects of PhD graduates? And finally, how will AI affect the role of professionals in doctoral education?
Join us at the PRIDE 2024 conference in Zurich for a thought-provoking exploration of these pivotal questions. Is AI truly beyond our control, akin to a BOT (Beyond Our Touch), an entity operating beyond our traditional boundaries? As we embark on this transformative journey, the need for knowledge exchange and a deeper understanding becomes increasingly clear, recognizing that we are still in the early stages of this remarkable transformation.
Host and Venue
With over 5.100 PhD candidates and 1.400 postdocs, University of Zurich (UZH) is not only Switzerland’s largest full university but also a leading research institution in the world. The doctoral and postdoctoral phases are essential stages in the careers of researchers. At UZH, Graduate Campus (GRC) has established itself as a central platform for doctoral and post-doctoral researchers and has been supporting and fostering (post-)doctoral education since 2011. As a founding member of PRIDE, we are proud to host the 6th Annual PRIDE Conference. We are especially excited to tackle the topic of AI – a topic of close interest to us – and look forward to a fruitful discourse.
Extra One Day Workshop on Friday 5.April 2024
The aim of this one day workshop is to learn how to develop or draft a workshop programme in a doctoral education related topic (be it academic writing, careers, mental health or similar) in a relatively short time with the help of an AI tool called eDoer.
It will be held following the PRIDE Annual Conference on Friday, 5. April, from 9:00 to 15:00.
Registrations will be treated on a first come, first served basis with a preferred status for PRIDE members.
Trainers
Gábor Kismihók
TIB Hannover, Chair of the ReMO Cost Action, Project Coordinator of the OSCAR project
Mathias Schroijen
PRIDE Board Member