Tuition fee
As of January 1, 2026, the Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences (FBMS) charges a tuition fee for external PhD candidates, i.e. for all PhD candidates without a formal employment (paid position) at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU).
The PhD tuition fee is meant to cover the university’s indirect costs beyond direct research. This includes rent, utilities (e.g., library access and IT facilities), and administrative overhead as well as hospitality and training costs.
FBMS charges €5,000 for the first year of the project and €4,000 for the consecutive years with a maximum total amount of €25,000 for the entire PhD project.
The PhD candidate or any supporting organisation is responsible for paying the tuition fee.
Waiving policy
The tuition fee can be waived in parts or in full. The reasons for waiving the fee may vary per PhD candidate. Two example categories eligible for waiving the tuition fee are:
- Candidates from an affiliated institution
The institution (or organisation or company) has a strategic alliance partnership with FBMS. This must be demonstrably manifested through, e.g., endowed professorships or formal partnerships (including cooperation agreement) with the respective institution.
- Candidates on a scholarship
The funding agency has a formal agreement with the VU about waiving PhD tuition fees.
Procedures
Requesting a reduction or exemption from the tuition fee (waiver)
- Motivated requests for waiving the fee must be submitted by the PhD candidate and the primary PhD supervisor (first promotor) to the management team of the department at which the project shall be hosted.
- A request must include a detailed budget for all indirect costs (see above) and the hospitality and training costs.
After approval of the department’s management team, the request for a waiver must be submitted to the Dean of FBMS, along with the approval of the department’s management team. Please send the request form to bestuurssecretariaat.fgb@vu.nl.
After approval by the Dean, the tuition fee agreement will be registered in Hora Finita by the faculty secretariat.
Formal requests for waiving the tuition fee must be submitted before the start of the PhD project. Note that a PhD project must not be started without approval.
Training budget
As per May 1, 2017, all PhD candidates have a training budget. This is to cover possible costs of the required PhD training, e.g., course admission and congress visits up to a total of 30ECTs. The training budget should comprise at least €5.000, i.e. €1.250 or €1.667 per annum for a 4-year or a 3-year PhD project, respectively.
- For primary funded (1e geldstroom) PhD candidates, the department is responsible for providing a training budget;
- PhD candidates on secondary funding (2e geldstroom), the corresponding grants (by, e.g., NWO, ZonMw, KNAW) include a so called benchfee that should serve as training budget;
- For PhD candidates funded by industry, charity organisations, ERC or EU-funded projects (3e geldstroom), the promotor is responsible for guaranteeing a training budget through the financing party.
- For PhD candidates without a funding party (i.e. any of the above), the promotor1 is responsible for making an agreement with the candidate about the PhD training budget. The training budget (minimum €5.000) must be available at the outset of the PhD trajectory.
- If no (implicit) agreements have been made regarding the training budget, e.g., for projects with one of the above funding that started before the introduction of the new Doctorate Regulations on April 1, 2015, the department (c.q. the promotor1) must provide the necessary finances for the necessary training.
The expected training costs and the corresponding funding have to be detailed prior to the start of the training, together with the training plan in Hora Finita.
By default, training costs will be charged to the corresponding project budget number. In the case of financial support through the department, business control will supply the PhD candidate with a budget number for his/her training at the start of the project, to guarantee a training budget of up to €5.000. Any unused funds will be returned to the faculty.
In all cases, the promotor* is responsible for specifying funding and monitoring its use for training throughout the PhD project.
*The promotor can delegate this to the co-promotor(es): The person(s) who supervises the PhD candidate in the process culminating in a dissertation and performs the conferral of the doctorate.
PhD Reimbursement
As of 1 January 2017, the PhD defence reimbursement will be paid by the Faculty (i.e. FGB). All FGB PhD candidates that have provided the University Library with a licence for non-exclusive publication of the dissertation in electronic form, if necessary with a temporary publication embargo, are entitled to a PhD defence reimbursement of € 500,-. Read more on the application for the PhD Reimbursement.
If an (external) PhD candidate meets all of the following requirements, they may also qualify for an additional expense allowance of €300 in addition to the standard expense allowance of €500 (bringing the total expense allowance to €800):
- The PhD candidate is employed by Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam or is an external PhD candidate with their own time-dependent scholarship or stipend;
- The (external) PhD candidate meets the timeliness requirement of their contract (full time max 4 years, part time max 5 years at 0.8 fte). The date of admission to the dissertation defense, signed by the dean, must therefore be before the end date specified in the training and supervision plan at that time.