FAQ for current PhD candidates

During your time as a PhD candidate, you might encounter times of anxiety and desperation. Building a support network of colleagues and friends is essential, but may not be so easy if you’re not a local. In troublesome times it may be good to share your concerns with nearby colleagues and staff from your department. However, it may also be good to share with others (sports, leisure, culture, religion, etc.).

In case any of these possibilities do not resolve your anxiety and despair, there is a PhD counsellor available to help you overcome this period. Read more.

Information on Hora Finita, including frequently asked questions and contact information, can be found here and here and log in to Hora Finita. 

The full text of the PhD Charter can be found here in Dutch and English.

For potential PhD candidates it is possible to either apply for a vacancy or, after a self-test, apply for an open application.

A selection is made by the intended thesis supervisor from the applications made for the vacancy. The selection committee then reviews whether the potential PhD candidate meets the requirements. The requirements can be found in Article 10 of the PhD Charter.

All PhD candidates (employees, bursary or self-financed, external) have to be admitted by the dean of the faculty with an employment contract or study agreement. This includes a budget and fiscal check through respectively the controller and the HR manager of the faculty. 

The TGS will invite new candidates for an explanation of the monitoring system (ProDoc) to familiarize the candiate with the system.

The PhD candidate has to report a list of documents to their (envisaged) promoters. These documents consist of a T&SP (Training and Supervision Plan), a 2-page summary (of the research progression and planning of the remaining time) in advance of the Qualifier/Progress interview and their final thesis.

The T&SP should be drafted within 3 months of the start of a PhD and updated regularly (at least at the time of the annual reviews).

The educational programme should contain in principle 30 credits (EC). Exemptions can be requested and should be directed to the coordinator of TGS.

A qualifier exam should be held between 6-9 months after the start of the PhD candidate. During this exam, a committee, appointed by the (envisaged) promoter, will judge the progress to date and indicate the likelihood that the candidate will finish in time in two overall qualifications: “sufficient” and “insufficient”.

In case of “insufficient” the PhD candidate can be given a 3-month improvement period. A second qualifier date should be planned with the (envisaged) promoter.

The promotor will use the qualifier exam for the first annual assessment interview (in the case of employees) or the progress interview (for non-employees) following the qualifier. The outcome may be “go”, “no-go” or a 3 months improvement period with specified targets (suggested by the qualifier committee). Employees always have the right to this improvement period of 3 months, after which a second qualifier will be held followed by a second assessment interview.

Following a positive outcome of the qualifier, the Doctoral Board is requested by the candidate to appoint the promotor(s) and assistant promotor(s), with the consent of the envisaged promotor(s).

Subsequently second and third-year annual appraisals are held. For employees, this can be in the form of an evaluation interview (or assessment interview). Non-employees always have a progress interview.

During the third annual appraisal, the graduation is discussed, and if necessary opportunities for extension are discussed and planned. Extensions are only possible due to special circumstances.

The PhD candidate will submit his/her manuscript to the promotor. The promotor will review the manuscript and either “approve” or “not approve” it. In the case of the latter, the PhD candidate has half a year to improve the manuscript before submitting it again.

After approval of the manuscript, the Doctorate Board will plan a graduation date and form a graduation committee.

Finally, TGS will review the entire process and provide the proper certificates.

1. All pre-2014 doctoral candidates are being registered in Hora Finita. They receive notifications when their account has been activated, after which they can log in.
2. When this process is completed, all PhD graduations will follow Hora Finita; which follows the graduation protocol of the Doctoral Board.

For doctoral candidates who started before 1 January 2014, existing agreements and obligations (such as the training and supervision plan, the annual assessment, the progress interview, and the education programme) as referred to in the collective labour agreement, by the financing organisation, the research school and in the TGS programme will remain in effect. These doctoral candidates will follow the procedures that existed at the start of their doctoral programme. As of 2020, all doctoral candidates will have to use the doctoral candidate monitoring system (Hora Finita), including the procedure for the approval and defence of the doctoral thesis according to the protocol of the Doctorate Board.

1. Registration of all PhD candidates in Hora Finita at the TGS is mandatory at the start of their research. This will be done automatically through OracleHR (the personnel database). The HR assistants will enter the required data in OracleHR, and this will be transferred to Hora Finita. Once the newly started PhD candidate is known in Hora Finita he/she will receive an invitation from the TGS coordinator to familiarize himself with Hora Finita.
2. Promotor(s) and assistant promotor(s) (max. 3 in total) have to be appointed by the Doctorate Board after the qualifier (see sub. 3) is passed successfully, so at the end of the first year of the PhD project. The required form (appointment of promotor) will have to be processed after a successful qualifier through the Hora Finita workflow.
3. A Training and Supervision Plan (T&SP) containing an educational programme (30 EC) for the personal development of the PhD candidate is a prerequisite for the award of the Doctoral Degree. This T&SP has to be prepared within the first 3 months of the PhD project. It contains at least:  - the name of the thesis supervisor (promotor) and daily supervisor(s); - the supervision arrangements; - the planning for the 30EC educational programme. The T&SP will be regularly updated (at least once a year) to keep in line with the progress of the research and the educational programme.

1. Instead of "assistant-promotor" the term "co-promotor" will be adopted to be in line with the other Dutch universities.
2. Two external members are required in the graduation committee.
3. Members of the graduation committee cannot withdraw other than because of force majeure.
4. Members of the committee may not have close (family) relationships with the candidate.
5. The promotor can decide to implement (minor) changes in the manuscript suggested by the committee, and also decides to inform the other committee members about this.
6. One member of the committee may have a negative judgement (and can withhold his signature on the degree). In this case, the other committee members are consulted before the defence.
7. One committee member is allowed to take part in the discussion by audiovisual means.
8. Rephrasing of the double and joint-doctorate article (42): “the substantive and quality provisions of these regulations must be met”.
9. Disputes are settled along the lines of the PhD Charter in the period before the submission of the manuscript, and according to the provisions in the Doctoral Regulations after the submission of the manuscript.

During your time as a PhD candidate, you have to participate in 30 credits (EC) educational programme. Within this educational programme, the courses can be picked by the PhD candidate. However, a fair distribution between “disciplinary” and “personal development” has to be made.  

All PhD candidates are obliged to attend the TGS Introductory Workshop at the start of their PhD project. This workshop is offered 5x per year and contains issues like academic integrity, managing your PhD, the upside of stress, and many more informative topics. Academic integrity is a mandatory activity, and besides the part during the TGS Introductory Workshop, it also has an online part and a come-back session (together 1.5 EC; category generic).

Four other so-called “First Year Courses” are obligatory for all PhDs (unless the candidate can give proof that these skills are already acquired at PhD level): Academic publishing (2 EC), Academic Presentations (1.5 EC), Data management (1 EC) and Scientific Information (0.5 EC), altogether adding up to 6.5 EC for the first year.

Please refer to the Doctoral Education Guidelines for full information.

No, you can get EC credits also for elements that take place outside UT, for example courses organised by National Research Schools, (international) scientific or professional organisations etc.

However budget for travel and participation to outside events is not provided.

Participation in UT courses is free of charge for UT PhD candidates.

Courses regarding “personal development” are listed at the Centre of Training and Development for PhD candidates and Postdocs. Additional workshops and courses can be found here (http://www.utwente.nl/en/education/post-graduate/tgs/courses-and-workshops/ ).

“Disciplinary” oriented courses may be offered by UT research institutes (CTIT, IGS, MESA, MIRA).

PhD candidates are also welcome to gather course elements outside the UT. The criterion should be what best suits your situation.

Yes, but with some provisions. The supervision should form part of your own personal development. Therefore, it should be executed under supervision of a senior staff member. It should also be preceded or accompanied by a course on educational methods. Finally, it should be expressed in a number of EC’s on your educational programme. For non-employees this is the only possible way to include supervision. Employed candidates may be asked to do a limited amount of teaching and supervision anyway.

In the first 3 months of your PhD you draft the Training and Supervision Plan (T&SP) in ProDoc.   You have to indicate the intended educational programme (note: the titles and dates you enter can be approximate/fictitious).   With time you will subscribe to activities that match your intended list, and attend these.   After you have completed an activity, you have to change its status from “planned” to “completed” in ProDoc, including the exact dates. Scans of the course programme and certificate can be uploaded in ProDoc. The candidate will have to keep a record of attended activities including the notifications (subscription, confirmation etc.) and certificates issued.   In case the activity is not expressed in EC you should record the nominal time (contact hours and self-study) for calculation of EC’s (1 EC is 28 hours). Some activities (like regular seminars of your research group) may not issue any proof of participation. In that case your promotor may be asked to confirm your participation.  

The final list of 30EC is signed by the promotor, indicating his/her confirmation of your participation and approval of the programme as executed (and agreement of any deviation from the initial planned T&SP).

No, other activities (“on-the-job-training”) are also possible, for example supervision of BSc and MSc students (see: Can supervision of BSc and MSc student form part of my 30EC?), attendance of regular research group seminars, preparing and giving conference/symposium/workshop presentations, etc. The assumption is that you learn from it. So the first conference presentation is OK, by the time it is your fifth we assume you have mastered the skill.

Partial exemptions can be given based on EVC’s (previously acquired competences). The promotor has to agree and write a request to horafinita@utwente.nl to waive (part of) the 30EC requirement, based on evidence like previous (work)experience and/or training that makes it plausible that the candidate has achieved a level equal to the end terms of the PhD profile (based on the Dublin descriptors).

Pre-2014 PhD candidates do not have to comply to extra obligations in the PhD Charter (such as the 30EC requirement) except for the obligation to become registered in ProDoc. However existing obligations concerning their PhD project will remain valid (for example as part of a TGS programme, research school, sponsor or employer, and the like).