Finishing your PhD

That starts with the approval of your thesis. The manuscript committee has approved your thesis? Congratulations! This is a milestone and you can be very proud of yourself.

Between now and your public defense, you need to take some last steps. You find all information on the RU Websites. This timeline is very useful to see what should happen when. This information on Hora Finita might be useful as well. Make sure to check the doctorate regulations as well.

The first thing you need to do is set a date for your defense by contacting promoties [at] ru.nl (promoties[at]ru[dot]nl). Depending on the day you want (Fridays are most popular), it will take several months until you can defend. The Beadle can only reserve one date/time for you. Therefore, it helps if you already have some dates in mind when your doctoral defense committee and important guests can make it before you call them to ask whether those dates are available. 

 What do you need to know as PhD candidate of the Donders Graduate School?

  • Finalize your thesis, publish your thesis in the Donders Thesis Series, and get your thesis printed. Find all the steps under Thesis guidelines and Design (.pdf).
  • Please fill out the exit questionnaire in Hora Finita.
  • Apply for the Graduate School Certificate (highly recommended, but not mandatory). For that, also update your course portfolio in Hora Finita.

 After your defense you can ask for reimbursement of:

  • The printing costs of your thesis: find all information on reimbursement of printing costs (.pdf).
  • Other thesis defense related costs (e.g. for reception, party, photographer etc.) up to €200 for having published your thesis in the Donders Thesis Series. For these costs please fill in the reimbursement form “non employee” (Specification 3400310) and send it together with the invoice to dgcn [at] donders.ru.nl (dgcn[at]donders[dot]ru[dot]nl) (Donders Graduate School). Note: This payment goes on top of the compensation that you receive from your institution for printing your thesis.

Thesis Guidelines and Design

The Donders PhD thesis guidelines (.pdf) aim to provide a comprehensive overview of all requirements related to the PhD thesis, and as such applies to all PhD candidates within the Donders Graduate School. The requirements for the academic and non-academic parts of the PhD thesis are defined in chapter 4 of the Doctorate regulations of the Radboud University. In addition, the Radboudumc has defined Radboudumc thesis guidelines for all PhD candidates within the Radboudumc. This document is in line with these two sets of regulations, and therefore Donders PhD candidates with their contract at the Radboudumc can follow these Donders PhD Thesis guidelines as the primary source. To note, the Donders Graduate School has additional requirements for the non-academic part of the PhD thesis and has recommendations in the form of templates for some of the other required parts, which are also included in this document. 

Thesis Design

The Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour initiated the so-called Donders Thesis Series for PhD candidates who complete their research programme at the Institute. As of September 2008 the series are published by the Donders Institute in line with the institute's visual identity.

The Donders Thesis Series is open to all PhD candidates within the Donders Institute. PhD candidates who are enrolled at the Donders Graduate School are required to publish their PhD thesis in the series. It is optional for PhD candidates who are employed elsewhere but spend the majority of their research time at the Donders Graduate School.

Request series number

As soon as the manuscript committee approved your thesis and a defense date is set, you can request a number in the Donders Series at the administration of the Donders Graduate School (dgcn [at] donders.ru.nl). Your number in the series will be assigned based on order of request.

ISBN Number

If you would like to request an ISBN number (not obligatory), please send your request to dgcn [at] donders.ru.nl (dgcn[at]donders[dot]ru[dot]nl) to receive instructions.

Design your booklet

Your thesis should include the following (for more details see Donders PhD thesis guidelines (.pdf): 

 

Last formal check

Send a complete .pdf file of the final version of your thesis (incl. cover and invitation) to the administration of the Donders Graduate School (dgcn [at] donders.ru.nl). Please note that the approval of the .pdf file may take up to two weeks. Only after the approval you can send your thesis to the printer for the final print.

Print your thesis

You are free to choose the printer for your PhD thesis. There are different ways to print your PhD thesis.

  1. You can either do the lay-out and/or design yourself, or you can outsource it to a designer (often also offered by a printing company). This means that you have the freedom to make your own choices with respect to design, layout, type of paper, number of colored pages, etc. However, you are also responsible for the communication with the printing company and/or designer. Furthermore, you first pay the printing costs yourself and can declare these costs afterwards up to € 2.200. Below we mention contact persons of possible printers who have experience in printing theses within the Donders Thesis Series:   
    1. Proefschrift Maken 024-2001299
    2. Ipskamp Printing  053-4826262
    3. Gildeprint 053-3032000
  2. Alternatively, Radboud University Press can take care of the printing (and professional design) of your thesis (up to 80 copies, more copies are at your own expense) and additional concise summary booklets (including summary and acknowledgments). Note that regarding design and lay-out of your thesis, you will have more limited options compared to doing the lay-out yourself. However, Radboud University Press directly takes care of the financial processing with the faculties, so you do not need to advance the money.

Provide short abstract

Write a short abstract (15-20 lines, English) for the Donders Thesis Series and send it to administration of the Donders Graduate School (dgcn [at] donders.ru.nl). That can be the same abstract that you are asked to write for the Radboud University's agenda several months before your defense. 

Give copies to Graduate School

Four copies of the thesis should be sent to the administration of the Donders Graduate School. Alternatively, one of your paranymphs can hand them in on campus.

The address is:

Radboud University
FAO: Donders Graduate School, secretary
Erasmusplein 1, Room 18.05
6525 HT Nijmegen

The office is located in the Erasmus building (room 18.05).

Note: These copies go on top of the requested copies that you have to bring to the aula (Registrar’s office). 

Reimburse money after defense

You will get €200 for participating in the Donders Series (e.g. for reception, party, photographer etc.). Fill in the reimbursement form “non employee”(Specification 3400310) and send it together with the invoice to the administration of the Donders Graduate School (dgcn [at] donders.ru.nl). Note: This payment is separate from (and on top of) the compensation that you receive for printing your thesis.