Offboarding PhD candidates

I have written about the procedures I have for onboarding PhD candidates and postdocs, but it recently became clear to me that I also need to think about my procedures for offboarding.

So, I sat down to see what are important aspects of the offboarding procedure, and here’s what I listedn:

• Continued access: Will the candidate still come to campus to finalize research activities? If so, you will need to make sure you set up the right systems to extend their access to the physical and digital spaces.
• Data and models transfer: Having an organized folder with all experimental data, models, and important documents of the candidate, for who is going to follow up with the research and to have the records in order, is super important.
• Handover of responsibilities: If the student organizes your department colloquium, for example, or is on a panel, discuss who will take over these tasks so there is no void once they leave.
• Pending tasks: Are there any tasks that have not been completed? How will you interact on the completion of these tasks? Are access changes affecting this (for example: do you have a paper in review with the student as corresponding author, but they will not have access to their email address anymore)?
• Equipment return: Also a practical one: but many times at the end of the contract, you need to make sure the PhD candidate returns their laptop, library books, and other artifacts they may still have with them.
• Future collaborations: Do you plan to collaborate in the future, either via conference or journal papers, or by applying for funding together? What are your expectations?

What do you when offboarding a PhD candidate?