Guest students

We accept students at all stages of their education both BSc, MSc and PhD level. For the students, the stay is often an experience for life, which has to do with much more than their study in itself: friendships, social conditions, food culture, and cultural experiences to name just a few. At AGRO, we want to contribute to all this being promoted by making the academic environment and the academic mission that the student is on the central starting point for the rest.

The exchange of knowledge in an increasingly globalised world has always been a hallmark of the academic environment, and study stays is one of the most effective means of promoting this. And with that comes the other experiences. During my own masters education, a four month stay in India and Bangladesh was an indelible experience. Back then in 1980, it was perhaps also a more all-in engagement, where the only means of contact from home was letter via a poste restante address at the GPO in Varanasi. There was no cell phone and skype connections to mom at home - it wasn’t invented until 20 years later. At any rate, the stay changed my focus in many ways and set a direction in my life for many years to come. Both the good experiences of being received with open arms at the university, food that in the first weeks tasted like an unquenchable fire, but which I later found my own favourites among, hazy sunsets over green rice fields, being on a small boat on Noakhali's canals, visit on ICRISAT, etc. But also, the more discouraging ones, like walking around the endless and inconsolable slums of Bombay and Calcutta. Back then, it was not a matter of certainty that agriculture could or would ever be able to supply everyone with food.

But back to the exchange. We are also dependent on other universities welcoming our students. In fact, we have a requirement for a minimum of three months' stay abroad for our PhD students. I know that our students very often come home with renewed energy and with new methods in their luggage. So, it works exactly as intended, and we old people can even with a little luck benefit from the inspiration from abroad. It is not that long ago one of my own students returned from three months in Lleida in Spain with lots of inspiration regarding inventory of drone and satellite data. Methods where Spain in many areas have far more experience than us. It really gave a boost to his entire PhD thesis.

We have a good and well-tested system in AGRO to handle guest students, just as there is help to be found at "AU Guest Researcher Support". But before embarking on writing the invitation letter, however, there are a few things to consider. We are often pressured in everyday life, so do you have the extra time to handle one more student. We get a lot of inquiries, and if we said yes to everyone, we would probably not be able to house them all. So it is always a good idea to check with your surroundings, if they are omboard and whether there is free office space. In addition, it is a really good idea to ensure that you can get the different nationalities mixed, so they do not get an experience of being isolated with their own countrymen m / f. A good rule of thumb that has actually become a requirement is to conduct an online interview. Here you will typically discuss the work plan and have it written down before the stay and match other expectations - at the same time you get a good impression of the student's English skills. If you decide to write the invitation, it is important to be aware of visa and residence permit rules, etc., and that the realistic start time is often 2-3 months on the horizon. 

In most cases, Karina Rysholt Christensen needs to been involved early in the process in order to have the visa part handled. Furthermore, the form "Request for Employment and Residence at Agroecology" must be filled out, where i.a. the work schedule for the stay is also included. 

When the student arrives, there are a lot of practical tasks to be solved within the first few weeks of the stay. However, many of these do not differ from how we receive our ordinary PhD students, and can therefore largely follow the standard procedure that AGRO’s PhD program committee has developed based on many years of experience. A central part of this is the "BUDDY function", which can be found described on the PhD committee's website. In addition to listing and handling necessary practical chores at the start of a stay, the Buddy scheme not least serves to create the first social contacts for the newly arrived guest student.

Covid-19 has caused a lot of problems for both incoming and outgoing guest students and their supervisors in the past year. Unfortunately, many stays had to be cancelled as students often have a narrow time window in their study to complete their stay abroad. Hopefully we can soon start eyeing the landscape on the other side of the pandemic peak. Our guest students contribute a lot to our work both in the form of publications, international networks, and not least the environment in the sections.