Information for supervisors

Check our cheatsheet for (prospective) supervisors at the School of Social Sciences. Find more detailed information below. 

Any questions? Email graduate.school.ssw@vu.nl.

Start of the project

• Are you planning on supervising a new PhD candidate? Please fill in the document Data on supervisors at the start of a PhD and collect the Admission documents, and submit them to the Graduate School.
• Questions on admission and registration phases? Check Application, admission, registration to the PhD program and Admission with a regular, short or long PhD trajectory.
• Familiarise yourself with the rules and policies: read the VU Doctorate Regulations and the Rules and guidelines for the PhD thesis. For information on the training requirements, see PhD training - information for potential candidates and supervisors.
• Is your supervision time compensated? VU-GSSS Funding for time spent on PhD supervision 
• Have you discussed the supervision with your PhD candidate? This is where to start: Agreements between supervisors of PhD candidates at the start of a project
• Make sure you know what the SSC Standards of supervising PhD candidates by academic staff are.
• Do you want to open a PhD position funded by a Marie Curie grant or similar? Fill the Authorisation form and send it to the GSSS. 

Go No Go assessment

• 8 months after the start of their PhD, your supervisee will have to pass the Go No Go assessment. Think of possible reviewers for their GNG product and contact them: Go No Go assessment - sample letter of invitation to a potential GNG reviewer
• Reviewers will have to use this form: Go No Go assessment - form for reviewers (fill-in document)

Annual progress interview

• Twice a year during the first year of their PhD trajectory, and once a year after that, the PhD candidate meets their supervisors for a progress interview. This is what you can discuss during these meetings: Annual Progress Review by supervisors and candidate
• Want to keep a record of what was discussed? VU-GSSS Annual Progress Review by supervisors and candidate (fill-in document to prepare and record)

PhD end phase

• The supervisors reach out to colleagues to become members of the Doctorate Committee: Sample letter for inviting someone to become member of a Doctorate Committee
• Once you have a committee, send this to the VU-GSSS: Proposal for the designation of a Doctorate Committee (fill-in document)
• Supervisors inform members of the Doctorate Committee about the date and procedure of the defense ceremony: Sample letter for inviting a member of the Doctorate Committee to the defense ceremony

Issues and changes

• Changes in the supervisory team? Notify the VU-GSSS through the document: Change the composition of the supervisory team
• Issues in the PhD trajectory? Procedure for PhD candidates and supervisors in case of an issue in a PhD trajectory

Obtaining ius promovendi

Are you an associate professor and wish to obtain ius promovendi? Consult the document VU-GSSS Procedure for assigning ius promovendi to an associate professor.