Doing a PHD

To ensure good progress in your PhD track, several assessments and contact meetings have been included in it. The overall conditions and criteria are described in the VU Doctorate Regulations.

At the beginning of their track, each PhD candidate writes a Training and Supervision Plan (OBP). Part of the OBP is the mandatory education programme of 30 ECTS the PhD candidate has to follow. The Graduate School also has a training track worked out, see Education programme PhDs. This OBP must be submitted for approval to the Graduate School.

After 10 months, a stop/go assessment follows, on the basis of a first report of the results and an updated work plan. At this assessment are present: the PhD candidate, the supervisor(s), the director of the Graduate School and the PhD coordinator. In the following years, there will be annual assessments between the supervisor(s) and the PhD candidate. There are no annual assessments for external PhD candidates. Each year, they will submit a succinct annual report to their supervisor(s) and to the Graduate School. For the format of this report, see Form annual assessment external PhD candidates.

You can always go to the PhD coordinator with questions or problems. The coordinator will explain the required forms to you, can coach you in your research track, mediate between the PhD candidate and the supervisors and help with difficult decisions.

PhD candidates do not only execute research, they also get an education, both to acquire a more profound knowledge in close contact with (inter)national peers from their field of research, but also to train various skills and to position themselves optimally for the next step in their career. Each PhD candidate devotes 30 ECTS (840 hours) to education and training. This concerns both education aimed at content, arranged for by the fifteen national research schools, and education in skills, provided in the form of courses by the Graduate School of Humanities or by other research groups of VU Amsterdam.

Documents

• Core competences
• Education programme PhDs
• Advanced Academic Writing for PhD Researchers

Teaching

Because VU Amsterdam considers it important that its PhD candidates are excellently qualified for the (academic) job market, there is space in the PhD track for teaching within the faculty of Humanities. In the second and third year of their appointment, PhD candidates could be called in to provide teaching. A condition for teaching is that the subject matter is linked to the PhD candidate’s expertise, so that the preparations will not demand too much of his/her time. Agreements about teaching to be done by the PhD candidate will be included in the OBP. Teaching can be combined with the acquisition of the Basic Teaching Qualification (BKO, 150 hours, 5 ECTS).

Mandatory courses

• Key issues in the Humanities
• Research Integrity - Arts in Humanities
• Writing a Data Management Plan

Research Master students and PhD’s are required to obtain at least 10 ECTS in their degree programmes by taking part in courses, summer schools and masterclasses offered by Nationals Research schools. Participation in National Research Schools allows students and PhD candidate  to build a network outside VU Amsterdam  and to work closely with experts in the field. The application procedure is coordinated by the Graduate School.

A current list of National Research Schools in the Humanities can be found on the website of LOGOS (Council of Dutch research schools in the Humanities).

All PhD students of the Faculty of Humanities are cordially invited to participate in the meetings of the PhD colloquium. On an average of four times a year, lunch meetings and workshops will be organized around themes such as time management, intellectual property, open access, data risk management, presentation skills and career orientation. Invitations are sent by email.