One university, two sets of rules

She dances salsa, chairs PhD committees, and roams deserts in search of soil samples. With two feet firmly planted on the ground, Bulgarian Mila Ivanova Luleva says ‘The sky’s the limit.’

As President of ITC’s PhD Committee (IPC), Luleva has faced numerous challenges, including issues that remain unresolved since ITC joined the UT. ‘It’s still unclear where we stand in the UT system,’ she explained while sipping cappuccino in the ITC cafeteria. ‘While PhD candidates at the UT are considered employees, we, at the ITC, are students. This main difference presents challenges when trying to establish common regulations. Especially now since the drafting of the “Student Statute” has been postponed until September 2011.’

Currently, there is a committee in charge of drafting a legal statute governing ITC students. Until its completion, however, the rules, regulations and privileges applicable to UT students, are not necessarily applicable to ITC students. Similarly, the rules established within ITC cannot be used officially with respect to the UT management. For example, PhD candidates at the UT are entitled to free sessions with a student counselor while ITC students must pay to see a counselor.

There are more than 140 PhD students at the ITC, and the 26-year-old Luleva became IPC President last January. ‘The Executive Body is a great team,’ she said. ‘Without them, I’d be nowhere. We are seven students who are responsible for bringing PhD concerns and suggestions to the ITC management, organizing social activities, and cooperating with our sister organization at the UT.’ Luleva’s term ends in January 2011.
The PhD Network of the University of Twente (P-NUT) represents approximately 575 PhD students and serves their interests with social activities and career development. The major problem facing PhD students at the ITC is with regard to their promotions. When they started at the ITC, they believed they would be graduating with degrees from Utrecht, Wagningen, or Delft Universities, which are better known internationally than the UT. ‘I hope this can be solved in the best possible way,’ said Luleva.

‘Sometimes working for the IPC is time-consuming, but I would recommend the job to anyone. Working with an international team has helped me to fine-tune my communication skills and learn how to expose problems in the best possible way.’

Luleva’s real love, however, is her research and, in particular, her field work. She is hoping to graduate with a PhD in Geo-information Science and Earth Observation in August 2011. By using spectral analyses and remote sensing devices, she hopes to develop a cheaper, faster technique for gathering data over broader geographic areas to help determine the rate of soil erosion. By monitoring soil chemical composition on the surface and integrating results with spectra data and satellite images, she expects to create a new method that would help detect, in a more timely and cost-efficient manner, desertification and limit its disastrous results.

‘Soil has been my thing since high school,’ she explained. ‘I also had a passion for chemistry. Suddenly, everything I’m doing now is coming together. Field work is the best part. I love the desert environment and am always in the soil, collecting as many samples as possible.’ Luleva’s soil collection takes her to southern Spain and Tunisia. She would like to continue doing research after she finishes her PhD. ‘My next location? I have no idea. Let’s see the opportunities!’

After spending three years in the Netherlands, Luleva still misses her mom’s cooking. ‘I talked to her a week before coming home, and gave her a list of what I want to eat,’ she confessed. ‘What I like about the Netherlands is how the Dutch handle daily life. You don’t see trouble on their faces. I admire them for that.’

Despite all the pressures to finish her research and effectively handle the role of IPC President, Luleva’s face also looks trouble free. Her secret? She runs four times a week, dances Latin style as often as possible, and boxes twice a week ‘to release negative energy’.

‘Running in Enschede is lovely with all the city parks,’ she said. ‘I ran the Batavierenrace for the ITC in April. Our team was called Run4Fun. We were about 25 men and women and the most international team that day.’ With all that Luleva has to do, it’s a good thing she has those running shoes!

‘Geologists like to say that it’s dirt,’ says Ivanova Luleva, ‘But soil is an ecosystem for animals. Plants feed on it and we feed on the plants. Soil is the source of life.’ (Photo: Gijs van Ouwerkerk)