Are you an incoming PhD student at the VU Amsterdam and would you like prepare for your PhD trajectory? Then the Bridging Programme is for you!
Course Description
The Bridging Programme (BP) is an intensive three-week course organised by VU Amsterdam to strengthen the research, academic writing and soft skills of PhD students in the early stages of their PhD trajectory. The programme consists of 4 modules delivered by lecturers from the Faculty of Humanities, VU Library, and the Centre for International Cooperation – CIS.
M1: Open Science, Research Data Management and Literature Management
M2: Academic Competencies
M3: Academic English Writing
M4: Soft Skills
Study Characteristics
- Name of teacher:
M1: Tycho Hofstra, Dr Anouk Nuijten, and Elisa Rodenburg (VU Library)
M2: Dr Denyse Snelder and Sabina Di Prima (Centre for International Cooperation - CIS)
M3: Dr Ursula Caci (Faculty of Humanities, Academic Language Programme)
M4: Wendelien Tuijp and Mekky Zaidi (Centre for International Cooperation – CIS)
- ECTS: 6
- Language: English
- Type of education: group assignment; lecture; literature survey; Lectures and tutorials
- Start date: Mid-January
- End date: Mid-February
- Self paced: no
- Type of education: Face-to-face
- Academic skill:
M1: Open Science and Research Data Management, Literature management
Introduces PhD students to basic concepts of open science, research data management, and literature management as well as VU library services and resources relevant for their PhD.
M2: Academic Competencies
This module is suitable for PhDs from different disciplines who would like to improve their competencies in developing and writing a research proposal. The focus is on the following steps in research proposal development: generating innovative research ideas, reviewing the literature, formulating a research problem that it is clearly linked to the research questions or objectives, developing a conceptual framework that captures the information needed to answer the research questions, and conceptualizing a research design that covers research methodologies for each of your research questions.
M3: Academic English Writing
In this module, PhD students learn how to write a well-structured and coherent academic English text about their research topic, following the stylistic conventions of their discipline. Lexical and grammatical error which affect the readability of the text will be addressed. Students also gain insight into their strengths and weaknesses in academic English writing, and get advice for further improvement.
M4: Soft Skills
The main focus is on communicating and presenting research to varied audiences and promoting research for maximum outreach. The aim is to develop the basic communication and presentation skills necessary for a successful PhD trajectory, taking into account the need for context and situation-based adaptations. Throughout this module you will appreciate the importance of inter-cultural communication and peer-to peer learning.
- Available to: Incoming/new PhD students at VU Amsterdam
- Cordinator: Sabina Di Prima, Centre for International Cooperation – CIS
- Discipline: Pre-doctoral training
- Min. number of students: 14
- Max. number of students: 30
- Sign up period: November
- Concluding assessment: Final presentation
- Assessment type: Qualitative assessment of final presentation and academic English writing
- With certificate: yes
- Admission criteria: PhD students registered at a VU Graduate School
- schedule info: Schedule information provided with the syllabus
-
Course Description & Study Characteristics
Course Description
The Bridging Programme (BP) is an intensive three-week course organised by VU Amsterdam to strengthen the research, academic writing and soft skills of PhD students in the early stages of their PhD trajectory. The programme consists of 4 modules delivered by lecturers from the Faculty of Humanities, VU Library, and the Centre for International Cooperation – CIS.
M1: Open Science, Research Data Management and Literature Management
M2: Academic Competencies
M3: Academic English Writing
M4: Soft Skills
Study Characteristics
- Name of teacher:
M1: Tycho Hofstra, Dr Anouk Nuijten, and Elisa Rodenburg (VU Library)
M2: Dr Denyse Snelder and Sabina Di Prima (Centre for International Cooperation - CIS)
M3: Dr Ursula Caci (Faculty of Humanities, Academic Language Programme)
M4: Wendelien Tuijp and Mekky Zaidi (Centre for International Cooperation – CIS)
- ECTS: 6
- Language: English
- Type of education: group assignment; lecture; literature survey; Lectures and tutorials
- Start date: Mid-January
- End date: Mid-February
- Self paced: no
- Type of education: Face-to-face
- Academic skill:
M1: Open Science and Research Data Management, Literature management
Introduces PhD students to basic concepts of open science, research data management, and literature management as well as VU library services and resources relevant for their PhD.
M2: Academic Competencies
This module is suitable for PhDs from different disciplines who would like to improve their competencies in developing and writing a research proposal. The focus is on the following steps in research proposal development: generating innovative research ideas, reviewing the literature, formulating a research problem that it is clearly linked to the research questions or objectives, developing a conceptual framework that captures the information needed to answer the research questions, and conceptualizing a research design that covers research methodologies for each of your research questions.
M3: Academic English Writing
In this module, PhD students learn how to write a well-structured and coherent academic English text about their research topic, following the stylistic conventions of their discipline. Lexical and grammatical error which affect the readability of the text will be addressed. Students also gain insight into their strengths and weaknesses in academic English writing, and get advice for further improvement.
M4: Soft Skills
The main focus is on communicating and presenting research to varied audiences and promoting research for maximum outreach. The aim is to develop the basic communication and presentation skills necessary for a successful PhD trajectory, taking into account the need for context and situation-based adaptations. Throughout this module you will appreciate the importance of inter-cultural communication and peer-to peer learning.
- Available to: Incoming/new PhD students at VU Amsterdam
- Cordinator: Sabina Di Prima, Centre for International Cooperation – CIS
- Discipline: Pre-doctoral training
- Min. number of students: 14
- Max. number of students: 30
- Sign up period: November
- Concluding assessment: Final presentation
- Assessment type: Qualitative assessment of final presentation and academic English writing
- With certificate: yes
- Admission criteria: PhD students registered at a VU Graduate School
- schedule info: Schedule information provided with the syllabus