External advisory committee
The External Advisory Committee (EAC) includes the following members:
Prof. Yves Zech, Emeritus Professor of the Institute of Mechanics, Materials and Civil Engineering of the Universite catholique de Lovain.
Prof. Nobuhisa Kobayashi, Director, Center for Applied Coastal Research, and Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Delaware.
Prof. Bruno Brunone, former Director of the Water Resources and Documentation Centre (WARREDOC) of the University for Foreigners of Perugia; former Member of the Board of Directors of the University of Perugia.
The EAC receives, from the PD, the annual report of activities prepared by the Directive Board. This report includes elements on the progress of students PhD plans as well as any other elements required by the EAC. This Committee critically reviews the activities of the programme on the basis of the DB report and makes recommendations for future editions. The EAB reports FCT on the performance of the programme.
The report prepared by the DB constitutes the basis for discussion between the EAC and DB during the meeting organized once per cohort. The meetings (4 in 7 years) give the EAC the opportunity to contact researchers and students bodies as well as students representatives and discuss with them the weaknesses and strengths of the programme as well as possibly needed remedies.
The EAC is invited to openly communicate and discuss, at the end of each visit, its overall assessment of the programme strengths and weaknesses.
Self-monitoring
Monitoring focuses training courses and development of PhD research plans.
Every academic year, the PD promotes the choice of 1 to 3 students representatives by the students body. The number of representatives will depend on the number of students enrolled in a given year (varying between 6 and 24).
Every student may directly contact the PD presenting suggestions or concerns. However, students are encouraged to approach their representatives for this purpose.
The role of students representatives is to receive and organize students concerns and approach the Directive Board when necessary, particularly when alarm imposes, i.e., when students feel they are not able to accomplish their objectives or in any situation that may jeopardize their research objectives.
Specific inquiries will be developed by IST specialists and run anonymously on an annual basis in order to monitor the organization of the programme, governance, supervision, facilities (computer and/or laboratory), technical support, social aspects, etc.. Results are jointly assessed by the Directive Board and students representatives in their annual meeting. Short or medium-term strategies for responding to weakness/faults improvement will be undertaken by the Board in cooperation with key partner institutions.
The body of students and students representatives necessarily meet with the External Advisory Board during the meeting per cohort for whatever subjects both parties agree upon.