Invitation for participating in the VU PhD Survey 2023
VU PhD candidates are warmly invited to participate in the 2023 edition of the VU PhD survey! All VU PhD candidates who are registered in Hora Finita will receive a personal link in their email.
The goal of the survey is to evaluate how PhD candidates experience their PhD trajectory, and therefore gain insight in how to further improve working conditions, facilities and regulations. The VU PhD survey addresses several topics, including (but not limited to) questions about wellbeing, supervision, education opportunities, progress of the PhD trajectory,work environment, and whether PhD candidates are involved in teaching and supervising.
We greatly value your opinion and experiences!
We hope that as many PhD candidates as possible will complete this survey, so we can obtain a comprehensive picture of the opinions and experiences of PhD at VU. Several questions in this PhD survey are the same as in PhD surveys conducted at other Dutch Universities. This allows for a comparison of the PhD candidates’ experiences relating to working conditions, supervision, educational opportunities, work pressure and career perspectives of PhD candidates at the national level.
2021 edition VU PhD survey
Curious about the results of the 2021 edition? Check out the report here. Based in part on these results, we have further developed community building initiatives for international (scholarship) PhD candidates, started exploring the possibilities of (better) using the monitoring module in Hora Finita, and are continuously improving the information about, and access to, support infrastructure for PhD candidates. Also, as of 2023 all faculties are required to appoint one (or more) PhD candidate advisor(s) who can offer advice and act as a sounding board for PhD candidates.
Your data is processed with great care and confidentiality
The data gathered in the PhD survey 2023 will be handled with great care and confidentiality. We emphasize that the data remains anonymous and will not be used in any way that enables VU, Amsterdam UMC or others to identify individual participants. For conducting and analysing the survey, the VU uses the services of RuigrokNetpanel. Detailed information on how we handle your data is described in this Privacy Statement.
Frequently asked questions
Answers to the most common questions you might have can be found in this FAQ document.
Time to complete the survey
It will take about 20 minutes to complete the survey.
You do not have to complete the survey all at once, as the link can be closed and opened again later, allowing you to continue where you left off. Please complete the survey on your desktop or laptop for optimal display. Please complete the survey before May 7.
Thank you in advance for contributing to this important survey!
Kind regards, also on behalf of the VU PhD Council and the Network of Graduate Schools,
Jeroen Geurts
rector magnificus
Results of the PhD Survey 2021
In 2021 roughly 25% of the PhD candidates who received the invitation completed the survey. Almost three quarters of the respondents indicate they are satisfied with the supervision they received. It is noteworthy that the number of hours of supervision they receive varies considerably and that one third of the respondents find the scientific requirements for their thesis not (entirely) clear. More than half of the respondents value the educational activities on offer and two thirds think these activities contribute to the completion of their PhD. However, less than half of the respondents feel they have sufficient time to take part in these educational activities. When asked about research environment, 46% indicate they feel integrated in their community. 56% of the respondents find that within their research group integrity issues can be discussed freely.
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is an important topic. The pandemic is given as an important reason for delays, along with project-related and personal circumstances. Respondents also say that they expect COVID-19 to have a negative impact on their future career prospects. Although the majority of the respondents describe their wellbeing as (fairly) good, nearly two thirds of those questioned are experiencing high, or too high, workload or time pressure and half of them say that this is considerably to extremely bothering.
If you are interested in the results of the VU Amsterdam PhD Monitor 2021, you can read the Ruigrok NetPanel report here .
The results of the PhD Monitor will help us to implement systematic improvements in the supervision, study programme, working environment and wellbeing of all PhD candidates. In 2022 we are working on making information on all aspects of the PhD programme more accessible and easier to find on our website, starting with the information on health and wellbeing. There are other initiatives and surveys too, both within VU Amsterdam and nationally. The Network of Graduate Schools will identify ways of prioritising the recommendations that emerge from these various evaluations and advisory reports.
Several questions in this PhD survey are the same as in PhD surveys conducted at other Dutch Universities. These surveys will be combined in a benchmark, to compare and gain insight into working conditions, supervision, educational opportunities, work pressure and career perspectives of PhD candidates at the national level. We expect the results of this benchmark to be available this spring.
The data gathered in the PhD survey 2021 is handled with great care and confidentiality. We emphasize that the data remains anonymous and will not be used in any way that enables VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam UMC or others to identify individual participants. For conducting and analysing the survey, the VU has used the services of RuigrokNetpanel. Detailed information on how we handle respondents’ data is described in this Privacy Statement. A FAQ document is accessible here.