• 29th May and 5, 12 and 19, June 2026, 9:30H - 12:00H, online (1st year PhD students, registration required)

In addition, a second thread on the same dates, 12:30h - 15:00h is organised by CICLIKS for all UPF PhD students (details, including full program and objectives)

Worldwide, approximately half of the students who start a doctoral program drop out, or never complete the doctoral process. Also, recent studies indicate that doctoral students tend to experience symptoms of anxiety, stress and/or depression more frequently than the general population. How do we stay positive and productive during this often difficult phase of our learning and professional development?

This online course, participatory in nature and based on recent research in doctoral education and behavioral science, will highlight issues and challenges that, while common, are rarely discussed openly (such as anxiety, or "imposter syndrome"). Cross-cutting research productivity practices will also be discussed. Doctoral students will also be invited to reflect on and diagnose their particular situation, and to collaborate in the active construction of solutions, practices and routines to be implemented in order to improve their doctoral performance.

The central theme of the course is that of progress in the PhD. Although various personal reasons and external factors can influence mental health or the eventual abandonment of the PhD, recent research has found that having a sense of progress, of advancement, is one of the indicators that distinguishes students who complete the doctoral dissertation. Similarly, having a sense of daily progress has been shown to be a crucial factor in studies of other technical and creative professions. The course will review behaviors and practices that can support this sense of progress, and encourage doctoral students to assess their own situation, and to collaborate to find a "map" that serves to understand and cultivate one's sense of progress, both in daily work and medium- to long-term goals.

Luis P. Prieto is a Ramón y Cajal Research Fellow at the transdisciplinary Group of Intelligent & Cooperative Systems / Education, Media, Informatics & Culture (GSIC/EMIC) in the University of Valladolid (Spain). A former Marie Curie Fellow at EPFL (Switzerland) and Associate Professor in Tallinn University (Estonia), he has researched a wide range of topics within learning technologies, from learning design to the orchestration of technology-enhanced learning, or the use of multimodal analytics to understand and support collaborative learning and teaching. He is currently researching doctoral studies, their widespread dropout and well-being problems, and how learning analytics and AI technologies could be leveraged to ameliorate them. He is very active in facilitating trainings to support doctoral students, especially in terms of productivity and well-being. He also popularizes doctoral education research and practical advice for postgraduate students and supervisors at his blog, A Happy PhD.