PhD regulations and guidelines
Before and during a PhD trajectory, you and your supervisors are required to make sure that the UM Doctoral Regulations are complied with. The UM doctoral regulations stipulate, among other things, how the primary supervisors and co-supervisors are appointed, what the doctoral thesis needs to entail, how the Assessment Committee is to be assembled, and what is required when defending your thesis.
The UM doctoral regulations can be found here.
It is important to consider that within UM, each graduate school or research institution has the option for additional regulations, or somewhat different procedures regarding conducting a PhD, next to the UM doctoral regulations.
FASoS: No additional regulations
FHML: No additional regulations
FSE: No additional regulations
FPN: No additional regulations
LAW: No additional regulations
SBE: See this website
Admission
For non-Dutch PhD candidates, it is necessary to obtain a validation of your master’s degree (this does not apply to every faculty, please check with your PhD coordinator). The Student Service Centre can check whether the master’s degree is an official and acceptable degree. The task of the SSC is explicitly not to verify compliance with the promotion regulations, as this mandate lies with the faculty. The SSC will only check the validity of the degree itself. You will receive more information hereon from the faculty to which you are applying.
General procedure and formal steps during your PhD trajectory
Your PhD trajectory formally consists of two phases:
The research and training phase
The doctoral degree phase.
The research phase consists of the following elements (which are in practice translated in model-letters, of which only a couple are for you as a PhD candidate to sign (others for your promotor and/or the UM central PhD office), to follow and administer the trajectory):
- Admission to the PhD trajectory - model letter 1 - to sign by the PhD candidate
- Composition of supervisory team - model letter 2 - to sign by the PhD candidate
- Signing the Declaration of Academic Integrity, which requires to take notice of Netherlands Code of Conduct for Scientific Integrity 2018 (Nederlandse Gedragscode Wetenschappelijke Integriteit) and the UM Integrity Code of Conduct - to sign by the PhD candidate
- Completing three obligatory PhD courses on Research Ethics and Integrity, Open Science and Science Communication - to be followed by the PhD candidate
The doctoral degree phase consists of the following element:
- Admission to public defence - model letter 7 - to sign by the PhD candidate