• Where do I find my ITSP?
• I have registered as a new PhD student on the SENSE website. Why can't I access my ITSP?
• Why do all credtis in my ITSP remain in the column 'Planned'?
• I want to request the SENSE Certificate
• Does SENSE give credits for teaching activities of PhD students?
• One of the requirements of the ITSP is to present in a SENSE meeting. Which meetings qualify as SENSE meeting?

You find the link to your own ITSP in the website menu on the left hand side, under 'For PhD Students' You see this menu when you have been acknowledged as a SENSE PhD student, after registration.

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Creating an account on the SENSE website involves the following steps:

1) You register yourself at the website (by going to: www.sense.nl/start).

2) You will receive an automated reply e-mail, in which you will find a weblink. Follow this link to validate your registration.

3) Your account will be approved by the SENSE webmaster. After approval you will have full access to all applicable website parts.

Once you have validated your registration, you have access to your account, and you can already carry out a number of actions, such as editing your account and registering for courses. However, your account has not yet been approved by the webmaster. This approval of the webmaster is necessary for your account to be recognized as a PhD student account (or, in other cases, a researcher account, an alumnus account, or an external contact account). Only when you are a SENSE PhD student, the ITSP options will become visible for you. Since these ITSP options are linked to PhD students accounts, they will become visible only after the webmaster has approved your account.

The SENSE staff always tries to approve a new account as quickly as possible, but still it might take a day or two before your registration is processed. If you still can't access your ITSP one week after your registration, then please contact SENSE, by logging a ticket in our support system (www.sense.nl/helpdesk).

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The column 'Planned' always shows all credits in my ITSP, even if I have already passed courses. What is happening?

Because your ITSP is not linked to the course registration part of the SENSE website, credits for completed courses will remain visible in the column 'Planned'. It is ofcourse registered that you have completed a SENSE course, but this is not immediately visible in your ITSP. When you follow a course outside SENSE, you can fill in the date of completion of the course yourself in your ITSP. However, also in this case the credits for the course will remain visible in the column 'Planned'. When you are near your graduation, and you request a SENSE certificate, the Education desk will check whether you have completed all your courses. The SENSE team is aware of the fact that the ITSP on our website is not always functioning properly and could be more user friendly. Therefore we are working on an improved version now (Autumn 2010). Once this version is ready, we will inform all PhD students about its functioning and implementation.

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I am nearing my PhD defence, and have added enough credits to my ITSP. How do I receive my certificate?

Your certificate can be awarded if you have an approved and updated ITSP, with enough credits. You can request the certificate by contacting the Education Desk via the link on the bottom of the page. The Education Desk will contact you when more details are needed.

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I'm involved in teaching activities in my department. Can this be part of my ITSP?

YES, for sure!
Teaching duties are not an obligatory part of a PhD study. However, teaching experience can be very valuable and also helps to develop your competencies. Therefore you can obtain credits for your teaching work. A general rule of thumb is that you should spend no more than 10% (=84 days) of your appointment on teaching. You may add the real time you spend on teaching activities in your ITSP under the heading “didactic skills” (1 ECTS = workload of 28 hours).

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A SENSE meeting is a scientific meeting organised or co-organised by SENSE members, for instance by SENSE PhD students, for a broader public than your own research group. This means that many meetings organised by national and international networks in which SENSE researchers are member of the organising committee may be regarded as “SENSE meeting”, for example SETAC meetings, BBOS symposia, etc.

If you are going to attend a meeting and you are in doubt whether it qualifies as a SENSE meeting, please contact Johan Feenstra.

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