6 minute read
The Netherlands
Doing your PhD in the Netherlands normally is a full-time four-year enterprise, although the number of part-time trajectories (5 years at .8 FTE) is increasing. In these four years, PHDs do their research and there is obligatory coursework. The amount of coursework gradually becomes smaller over the four years, and normally students follow a program that is offered by what is called a research school. The main research school for educational science in the Netherlands is ICO. At some universities, students also have a teaching obligation (e.g., 10%), but that is not a general rule, and the majority just concentrate on the coursework and their research. Again, there is much variation, but as a normal rule you could say that a thesis comprises three or four empirical studies that each have been published or are potentially acceptable for an international journal. These papers have been accepted or submitted to international, peer-reviewed journals, with the student being the first author, and the supervisors as co-authors. There is a separate theoretical or introductory chapter that precedes the empirical chapters and a concluding chapter that puts all results into context.
However, theses can also take the form of a monograph. Almost all theses are written in English.
The main person in approval of the thesis is the academic supervisor. This supervisor is a full professor or an associate professor with specific qualifications; they have what is called the ius promovendi (the right to supervise a PhD trajectory), which they keep until five years after their retirement. There can be more than one supervisor, but more than two is exceptional. The supervisor can be assisted (and when the PhD student follows the ICO trajectory must be assisted) by an assistant supervisor who does the supervising of the PhD work on a daily basis. This assistant supervisor can be an associate or assistant professor, who needs to have a PhD himself or herself.
When the work is done, the supervisors have to approve the work. This, of course, is done over a four-year intensive supervision period, with many revisions of separate studies going back and forth. Once the supervisor has approved the work, the manuscript is sent to a scientific committee. The supervisor makes a proposal for the composition of this committee, but the committee needs to be approved by the board of the university in which the PhD student will do his or her defense. Different universities have different rules, but the scientific committee normally consists of around six to eight persons, with a minimum number of full professors and a prescribed minimum number of persons from inside and outside the university where the defense will take place. The assessment committee members receive the manuscript and have around six weeks to give their opinion on the thesis. This opinion is a simple “yes” or “no,” with “yes” meaning that the member of the committee thinks the thesis is “defendable” (nowadays, more and more universities also ask for a brief reflection on the quality of the work). In order to say “yes,” a committee member does not need to agree with the content of the thesis, but just has to judge if the thesis is defendable. Then by simple counting of the votes and with a simple majority it is decided if the defense can take place.
Example of a PhD thesis
Doctoral defense of the editor back in 1986
After this is reported to the dean of the faculty, the supervisor is informed of the outcome, and, in the case of a “yes,” the supervisor grants the PhD candidate permission to print the manuscript. In the Netherlands, this takes the form of a small book; there is a range of publishers who have specialized in publishing PhD theses. It is not obligatory, but the candidate may decide to add a set of “propositions” to the manuscript. Basically, this set consists of three types of propositions. The first set (around five) summarize the main points from the thesis, the second set (around three) shows that the candidate has a broader view on science and society than just the topic of the thesis, and the final set (mostly around two) has a more humorous character. The supervisor (and the rector) has to agree on the list of propositions. The defense is a big day. It is public and friends, colleagues and family gather to see the event. The candidate stands behind a desk and the committee sits on the dais. The candidate is supported by two persons who are called paranymphs (literally groomsmen or bridesmaids, from Greek). These paranymphs nowadays have a more ceremonial function, but originally they were there to support the candidate in the defense. The professors all wear their gowns. Each university has its specific type of gown, but the predominant color is black. The rector opens the session. The candidate then first gives a 10-minute layman’s talk, to explain his/her work to the general audience. Then, the formal part of the defense starts, and each of the members of the committee (apart from the supervisors) asks a question.
Eliane Segers giving a laudatio at the Radboud University Nijmegen
A question normally takes around three minutes, an answer around four minutes. Even when a member of the assessment committee and the candidate know each other very well, they use the “polite” language form while addressing each other (“u” instead of “jij”). The whole question and answer session takes exactly 45 minutes. Then an academic assistant (the beadle, also dressed in a gown) enters the room, walks towards the dais, knocks with an academic staff on the floor, and says “hora est,” the hour is over. Even when in the middle of speaking a sentence, the defense is then stopped. (Indeed, when this academic assistant says “the hour is over,” it was only 45 minutes, but at universities an hour has what is called an academic quarter. If your lecture officially starts at 11.00, it actually starts at 11.15. If it really starts at 11.00, it is announced as “11.00 precisely”). Then the chair (officially the rector, but normally someone who replaces the rector) stops the defense and asks the candidate to take a seat in the audience, and then the committee retreats. In this retreat, they decide on the granting of the diploma, and if applicable, whether a judicium (cum laude) will be given. What is said in this meeting is secret, but once the committee has made a positive decision, the diploma is always given; there is no second round in which comments from the committee need to be included in the thesis.
After this retreat, which only takes around 15 minutes, the committee enters the room again and the diploma is handed over by the first supervisor. In doing this, the supervisor normally uses a prescribed formulation, in which the candidate is also reminded of the duties the diploma brings in terms of serving science and society. Nowadays, the candidate also has to testify that the work was done in accordance with the principles of scientific integrity: careful, honest, transparent, independent and responsible. After the formal part, everybody can relax and sit back, and the supervisor or assistant supervisor takes some time
to say the laudatio, which is a short, more personal word to the candidate. Then there is time for a reception. The chair closes the meeting and the now “young doctor” proceeds to leave the room, followed by the corona (this is the scientific committee in their gowns) and the family and the rest of the audience. Normally this all happens in the afternoon and the graduate often gives a party that same night.
Nicolas Balacheff from France visiting the Unversity of Twente as a committee member Universities in the Netherlands all have different gowns
