In the welcome letter you will find a lot of practical information regarding the your position, facilities for PhD candidates, regulations, and social opportunities.

All PhD candidates are required to fill in the Training and Supervision Plan. This plan is not set in stone, but can and will be adjusted as the PhD evolves. However, it is essential that you discuss and agree with your supervisors on how to proceed. Also we ask you to select and join one of the national research schools.

All faculty-funded PhD candidates are expected to hand in a pilot study for evaluation in their first year. The pilot study is evaluated by the supervisors, an external reader and the director of the Research School. The director of the school decides on the basis of the evaluations if the project will be continued. Since the continuation of the PhD project depends on the quality of the pilot study, the timely completion of the pilot study should be the absolute priority for both the PhD candidate and the supervisors in the first year.

The month in which the evaluation will take place is stipulated in the PhD candidate’s employment contract and is usually 6 months before the end of the contract date (normally for PhD candidates with a full time contract in the 9th month of the contract period).

Each school provides both the supervisors and the PhD candidates with guidelines regarding the pilot study and the first-year assessment at the start of the PhD candidate’s contract period. These guidelines are also available from the respective websites.

All PhD candidates are entitled to a research budget for presenting papers at conferences, research travel to archives/fieldwork/research trips, and the production of the thesis.

Self-funded PhD candidates (all PhD candidates who do not have a contract from the Faculty of Humanities) have a total budget of up to 4.500 euro* (for their entire trajectory) for the conferences, research travel to archives/fieldwork/research trips (travel and accommodation, participation fee); and for the production of the thesis (printing, light editing). 

_{* The budget has recently been increased from 3,750 to 4,500.. The higher amount is only available for PhD candidates who started after 31-12-2022.}

To apply for this funding, and receive details how to claim, please contact Astrit Blommestijn via E: extprom-fgw@uva.nl.

Externally funded PhD candidates (who receive external funding through the Faculty of Humanities) as well as postdocs have a personal budget (‘bench fee’) available to them via their project budget. For more information, please contact your project manager.

Faculty funded PhD candidates have an annual budget, which can be accessed at the following link:

All PhD candidates will be visible on the UvA website. Please make sure to create and update your online profile.

In the Netherlands, PhD candidates are considered to be 'employees' and not 'students'. Hence you are entitled to a staff ID, which also serves as your library card.

At the time of your registration, you will be asked to register for the Admission to the Doctorate Programme. This is a separate administrative track handled by Nathalie Smit who can be reached at promoties-fgw@uva.nl.

All formal regulations regarding PhD candidates at the Faculty of Humanities can be found in PhD Regulations.

When you approach the completion of your thesis, please read (at least twice) the PhD Defense Guidelines. All documents related to the admission to and completion of the doctorate programme can be found here.

In November 2020, the Faculty of Humanities organised an explanatory meeting on the current doctorate regulations. You can download the presentation below.

There is a special section on the UvA website for international students and employees which will help them with practical matters