PhD Opportunities

In the Dutch university system, students who have obtained a Master’s degree can apply for a position as a PhD candidate. The doctor’s degree, the equivalent of a PhD, is the highest academic degree one can obtain at a university in the Netherlands. It usually takes about four years to prepare for a PhD.

Doctoral degrees are awarded in the Humanities in Utrecht on the basis of a thesis demonstrating original research in a particular field. The PhD supervisor (in Dutch: ‘promotor’), one of the full professors in the faculty, is involved in the supervision of the thesis research, though the main task of supervision may have been delegated to another member of staff (called the ‘co-promotor’). Skills’ workshops are offered to doctoral candidates by the Graduate School of Humanities, while research seminars are offered by the faculty's research institutes and the national research schools. For more detailed information on the official regulations regarding the conferring of doctoral degrees, see Utrecht University's doctoral degree regulations.

Doctoral candidates at the Faculty of Humanities do not have to pay fees. They work on their doctoral theses in one of several capacities with variable possibilities for financial assistance.

Doctoral Candidates in the Employ of Utrecht University:

• The faculty offers annually a select number of fully-financed positions for doctoral researchers (called assistenten in opleiding: ‘research traineeships’) lasting for a maximum of 4 years full-time. These positions are of two kinds:

  • the doctoral candidate is appointed to one of the research institutes to work on a pre-defined project within a larger research project. The availability of these places is variable and vacancies may occur throughout the year.
  • the doctoral candidate is appointed to one of the research institutes to work on an independent project which he/she has defined him/herself.

Advertisements for both types of places are published on the university website www.uu.nl/vacancies. All doctoral candidates with a traineeship are expected to devote a percentage of their time to teaching tasks.

• The faculty regularly offers junior lectureships with appointments to one of the six departments within the faculty and time allocated both for teaching and research. The latter can be used for preparing a doctoral thesis. Whenever vacancies for such positions arise they are advertised on the university website: www.uu.nl/vacancies.

‘Independent’ Doctoral Candidates:

• Doctoral candidates with a scholarship. Candidates may pursue doctoral research at Utrecht University with scholarships acquired from other agencies (this applies in particular to foreign doctoral candidates with funding from their home country). For an overview of funding opportunities, see for example www.grantfinder.nl or www.scholarshipportal.eu. You can also read more about grants, loans and scholarships on the Utrecht University website.
• Candidates may pursue doctoral research while in the employ of other agencies (this applies in particular to employees of other institutes of higher education who have been given time off to complete a doctorate).
• Candidates may pursue doctoral research in their own time without any financial support. An external doctoral candidate must take the initiative to approach a professor for supervision of his or her doctoral research. If a professor is willing to act as a supervisor for the candidate, then the two must agree on a work schedule together.

Acceptance of a candidate by the research institute in the relevant field is necessary in all cases.

How to Proceed?

If you are interested in pursuing a doctoral degree at Utrecht you should regularly consult the website of the university and of the faculty research institutes for vacancies and for scholarship possibilities, and follow the procedures described there. www.uu.nl/vacancies.

If you already have funding from another source or would like to pursue a doctoral degree as a an ‘independent’ candidate then you should verify if your research proposal fits into one of the programmes of the research institutes. If this is the case, please contact the relevant research institute for further instructions.