Admissions Committee

In accordance with the new PhD Regulations, the Graduate School of Science and Engineering Admissions Committee formally decides on behalf of the dean about admission of a PhD student to a PhD programme.

Once the dossier of a new PhD student is filed with the Graduate School, the admissions officer, Mrs Annette Korringa-de Wit, checks whether the candidate has the legally required Dutch Master’s degree or a degree equivalent to it. PhD candidates studying for or possessing a European Master’s degree are admitted to a PhD programme without the Admissions Committee being involved.*

The Admissions Committee has to decide on admission to a PhD programme of prospective PhD students who:

possess a non-European Master’s degree (actual or to be expected) that is not equivalent to a European or Australian degree.**
do not have a Master’s degree and are not currently studying for a Master’s degree. They can be admitted to a PhD programme by providing evidence that they have considerably more experience with doing research than a regular Dutch BSc student. To that end, the Assessment Committee has to receive a document, preferably written in English, that demonstrates the candidate’s research experience, such as extended periods working in research labs, first-author publications, substantial research reports, a Master’s thesis, a manuscript etc. If the prospective PhD student is still in the process of writing a Master’s thesis and has no other proof of his or her research abilities, the Admissions Committee expects the candidate to submit an English-language, 5-page summary of the thesis.

While the level of the degree determines which candidates are assessed by the Admissions Committee, the committee always assesses each candidate individually, judging each case on its own merits and taking into account the whole of the dossier.

The new PhD Regulations do not give the Admissions Committee the possibility to admit a candidate conditionally; a PhD candidate is either admitted or not admitted. In case a candidate is not admitted, the prospective supervisor is free to re-submit an application for admission once there are new facts to add to the candidate’s dossier.

* PhD candidates who are currently studying for a Master’s degree but have not yet received a diploma are in principle admissible, if they submit proof of enrolment and a letter by their current university giving information about which parts of their programme they still need to complete and the date at which they will probably receive their degree.

** on the basis of three national and international databases (Nuffic/Dutch, Naric/British, AEI/Australian). If at least two of the databases do not assess the level of the degree in question as equivalent to a European or Australian degree, the Admissions Committee has to assess the PhD candidate.

Last modified:

06 March 2017 3.01 p.m.