PhD supervisors work closely with candidates in shaping their scientific projects. It is therefore important to be approachable. At the Department of Health Services Research at Maastricht University, PhD candidates get several opportunities to evaluate their supervisors and to work together with them as academics. ‘Extreme hierarchy threatens the quality of our scientific work’ says Hilde Verbeek. In this episode she explains how these evaluations have – sometimes in an unexpected way – helped her become a better supervisor.

Hilde Verbeek is Professor of Long-Term Care Environments at Maastricht University.

In this short series, Marie-José van Tol and Sanli Faez, members of The Young Academy discuss some outstanding solutions for common issues experienced at Dutch universities with various guests. In these interviews faculty members from four universities present how a serious and common problem has been solved in their department or institute in a creative way.