PhD

Quality of Dutch education

Master Programmes and PhD’s attended in Dutch universities are held in high regard because of the high academic standards. The Netherlands internationally rank 7th on the number of publications per researcher and 4th on the impact of research publication. The PhD programme epidemiology equals the registration demands from the Dutch Epidemiology Society for Epidemiologist B.

PhD in the Netherlands

Getting a PhD degree in The Netherlands means spending 3-4 years conducting original research and writing your dissertation, while you work in close collaboration with your supervisor. Once you have at least 5 published articles in peer reviewed journals and your dissertation has been approved for publication, a public defense of your research is required. When you succeed, will you attend a traditional - and festive - ceremony and bestowed with the title of PhD.

In short, a PhD in The Netherlands is

• a fulltime job (3-4 years)
• extremely intense, but greatly rewarding
• gives you many international opportunities
• for the truly dedicated

In paid employment

A PhD is usually in paid employment, therefore a formal interview procedure applies. You can search for such a PhD position at vacant research positions within the UMC Utrecht (in Dutch) and Careers at UMC Utrecht (in English). It is possible to come up with your own research objective and data, however, this has to be validated by all parties involved.

Graduate School of Life Sciences

Utrecht University has organised its research programs within 6 Graduate Schools; one is the the Graduate School of Life Sciences. The Julius Center, in collaboration with Utrecht University, organises the PhD program Epidemiology, which is part of de Graduate School of Life Sciences. 

Programme outline

For candidates in the PhD programme Epidemiology there are two options: