Graduate School for the Humanities

GSH recognizes four different types of PhD candidates.

1. Employed PhD candidates. As an employed PhD candidate, you will have an employment contract with Radboud University. You can become an employed PhD candidate by applying for one of the PhD vacancies on our website.
2. Scholarship PhD candidates. The research of scholarship PhD candidates is financed by a foreign grant. You will not become an employee of Radboud University, but you are able to make use of the facilities (e.g. email address, library access). Radboud University does not award any grants to scholarship PhD candidates itself. Grants can be obtained from a variety of national and international institutions, such as the Dutch Research Council. Some grants are not sufficient to cover the costs of scholarship PhD candidates. Since September 1, 2023, it is standard Radboud University policy that a contribution needs to be made to these insufficient grants up to an amount of € 1.700,-. Pay attention that the faculty or department needs to provide this contribution. If it is not feasible for the faculty or department to fund the allowance, the scholarship PhD candidate cannot be admitted.
3. Externally funded PhD candidates. As an externally funded PhD candidate you will not have an employment contract with Radboud University, but your PhD track will be made possible via a different trajectory. Externally funded PhD candidates are often allocated time by another employer to pursue a PhD track. If you wish to pursue a PhD alongside a paid job, your employer may have a vested interest in your PhD research. In that case, your employer may be able to facilitate you in this, for instance by allocating you paid leave or permitting you to work on your PhD research in your work hours. Discuss the options with your employer at an early stage.
4. External PhD candidates. As an external PhD candidate, you will not receive a salary or be eligible for other terms of employment at Radboud University. You are, however, able to make use of the facilities (e.g. email address, library access). The GSH has three set deadlines per year to apply for an external PhD position: October 1^st (start track: January 15^th), February 1^st (start track: April 1^st) and June 1^st (start track: September 1^st). To apply for an external PhD position, you need to complete an external PhD proposal that will be assessed by the research director and the graduate school coordinator. The assessment is based on feasibility in design/structure, feasibility in time and quality of the proposal.

To apply for an external PhD position, please contact the right coordinator. For the Faculty of Arts, contact Suzanne van de Liefvoort (gshcoordinator [at] let.ru.nl (gshcoordinator[at]let[dot]ru[dot]nl)). For the Faculty of Philosophy, Theology & Religious Studies, contact Jeske van Dongen (gshcoordinator [at] ftr.ru.nl (gshcoordinator[at]ftr[dot]ru[dot]nl)).

Internal PhD candidates

The projects of internal PhD candidates are already funded. This means that internal PhD candidates will receive a salary for the period that they are appointed to carry out their research. In most cases, it also means that internal PhD candidates will be allocated a research budget, which they can use to attend international conferences, participate in courses and/or summer schools, purchase data, conduct fieldwork, etc.

Apart from this research budget, internal PhD candidates can also make use of the international mobility options outlined by Radboud University’s International Office.

• Additional information: Faculty of Arts

External PhD candidates

External PhD candidates are self-funded. This means that external PhD candidates must support themselves financially during their PhD trajectory, either by receiving a salary from employment elsewhere or by applying for scholarships or stipends.

External PhD candidates are also responsible for funding their own research and training costs associated with carrying out their PhD project (e.g. participation in a research school, attending conferences, conducting fieldwork). Sometimes external PhD candidates get a discount in registration costs and they can also make use of the international mobility options to the extent that funding is available.

The Graduate School for the Humanities also provides additional funding in some cases.

• Additional funding: Faculty of Arts

Two types of PhD tracks are united in the GSH: funded and non-funded ones. A funded PhD track usually takes 4 or 5 years, depending on the type of funding and/or the choice to work on your PhD project fulltime or parttime. A non-funded project takes 6 years or longer.

You have a funded PhD track when you are 1) an employed PhD candidate; 2) a scholarship PhD candidate; or 3) an externally financed PhD candidate.

You have a non-funded PhD track when you have no funding as a PhD candidate.

Both funded and non-funded PhD candidates are monitored during their PhD track. They have regular meetings with the Graduate School Coordinator of their Faculty and with their faculty’s research director (Faculty of Philosophy, Theology & Religious Studies) or research coordinator (Faculty of Arts). At the start of a PhD track, new PhD candidates and their supervisors complete a PhD Project Agreement, in which they reach consensus on specific topics related to the PhD track (e.g. frequency of supervision, training programme, method of communication).

All PhD tracks start with a temporary agreement of 18 months (funded) or 24 months (non-funded). After this first period, the progress of the project will be assessed and a decision will be made to continue (‘go’) or to stop (‘no go’) the PhD track.

The Graduate School for the Humanities tracks the progress of both funded and non-funded PhD candidates by means of Hora Finita, an online system for monitoring PhD tracks. Hora Finita uses the term ‘checkpoints’ to refer to certain milestones that can be reached during each PhD track.

1. Introductory Meeting with the GSH coordinator
   The GSH invites all new PhD candidates for an individual welcome meeting with the GSH coordinator. This meeting takes place within the first month after the start of the PhD track.
    
2. PhD Project Agreement
   All PhD candidates are requested to complete a training and supervision plan (TSP). This TSP is integrated in the PhD Project Agreement, a document that serves as a conversation starter between PhD candidate and their supervisors. This document will be sent to new PhD candidates by the GSH coordinator and it should be uploaded in Hora Finita within three months after the start of the PhD track.
    
3. First Assessment
   PhD candidates are invited for their first assessment 7 or 12 months after the start of the PhD track (the moment depends on the type of PhD track pursued). This assessment focuses on the start of the PhD track, the progress made so far and looks ahead to the so-called ‘go/no go’-assessment. In preparation of this first assessment, PhD candidates fill in a progress report and a confidential questionnaire on the relationship with their supervisors (who are in turn also invited to fill in such a confidential questionnaire).
    
4. Go/No Go Assessment
   During the go/no go assessment, all parties involved in a PhD track assess the progress so far and express their ideas about continuation (or discontinuation) of the project: GSH, the research institute, the PhD supervisors and – most importantly – the PhD candidate themselves. In preparation for this assessment, PhD candidates fill in a progress report and a confidential questionnaire on the relationship with their supervisors (who are in turn also invited to fill in such a confidential questionnaire), they provide an updated planning for their entire project and they hand in a writing sample (the content of which is dependent on the research institute). The go/no go meeting takes place 14 or 24 months after the start of the PhD track (the moment depends on the type of PhD track pursued). The outcome of this meeting can be ‘go’ (PhD track will be extended), ‘no go’ (PhD track will be terminated), or ‘indecisive’ (decision is postponed and a tailormade agreement is reached on how to proceed).
    
5. Additional Assessments during the PhD track 
   PhD candidates have additional annual meetings with either the GSH coordinator, the research coordinator and/or the research director of their institute. For the Faculty of Arts, this includes an end of contract/agreement meeting with the GSH coordinator. For all these meetings PhD candidates are requested to fill in a progress report and a confidential questionnaire.
    
6. Monitoring after initial PhD contract/agreement
   The GSH monitoring of PhD tracks continues beyond the initial PhD contract or PhD agreement if the PhD project is still unfinished. In that case, PhD candidates receive an email by the GSH coordinator to reflect on their progress.
    
7. Exit Meeting
   When a PhD project is finished and the manuscript is uploaded to Hora Finita, PhD candidates are invited to fill in an exit questionnaire to reflect on their time as a PhD candidate.

• Additional information: Faculty of Arts

The Doctorate Regulations of Radboud University contain a number of requirements regarding Research Data Management (see in particular Article 72).

The obligation to write a clear section/appendix about RDM does not arise if your dissertation is a literature study in which you systematically refer to the literature used in your dissertation and give its interpretation in the text and footnotes of your dissertation itself.

If the latter is not the case and you have created new research data yourself, not contained in the dissertation, the regulations require that:

1. the thesis contains an RDM section (e.g., as an Appendix);
2. upon request the PhD candidate provides the chair of the manuscript committee access to the data (if legally possible).

The RDM section in the thesis should specify:

• which existing data were used;
• which new data were created;
• if personal data were collected, how privacy issues were dealt with (in terms of ethical permissions and GDPR requirements);
• if data can be shared for re-use with others, the locations (URLs) and under which access conditions the data can be accessed;
• the locations (URLs) of data that are archived and cannot be shared.
  Note:
  Datasets that can be shared should be published in the Radboud Data Repository (RDR) unless another vetted repository was selected.
  Datasets that cannot be shared should be archived in a Data Acquisition Collection of the RDR.

The RDM section of your dissertation should be submitted to the data steward for feedback and approved by the promotor.

Please also make sure to register datasets that you can share with others (also if this is under restricted conditions) in RIS.

Before completion, send the RDM section to the data steward to check. Feel free to pose any questions that you may have about this to the data steward as well.

Data stewards Henk van den Heuvel and Anas Maya can be contacted at dataofficer [at] let.ru.nl (dataofficer[at]let[dot]ru[dot]nl).

Employed PhD candidates

All employed PhD candidates are required to take 840 hours of training (equivalent to six months on a fulltime contract). The majority of these 840 hours can be spend according to the wishes of the PhD candidate. However, there are some rules and regulations, that will be explained here.

The following training courses are mandatory for employed PhD candidates:

• GSH Introduction Days;
• GSH Writing Support Groups;
• GSH Workshop on Scientific Integrity;
• GSH Workshop on Research Data Management I;
• GSH Workshop on Research Data Management II (only for PhD candidates working with new, personal or otherwise sensitive data);
• Core Curriculum of the International Max Planck Research Institute (only for

CLS PhD candidates working in one of the research fields covered by the IMPRS).

Non-employed PhD candidates

All non-employed PhD candidates are required to take the GSH workshops on Scientific Integrity, Research Data Management I and (if applicable) Research Data Management II. All other training is optional. Non-employed PhD candidates are welcome to participate in GSH training courses and they can also register for one of the national research schools. Please note that costs are involved with this registration.

The remaining hours of training can be taken from, for example:

• courses offered by gROW (RU online learning environment);
• courses offered by the national research schools;
• courses offered by RU in (Research)Master programs (only in specific cases and only after approval of PhD supervisors);