Status, salary and duration of appointment

The ILLC PhD programme is, in principle, a four-year programme, also for bursary or self-funded PhD candidates. The actual duration, however, depends on the source of funding and the financial possibilities at ILLC, and can vary from three to four years.

In the Netherlands, PhD candidates (promovendi) are not considered students, but academic researchers. They therefore pay no tuition fees. If hired on a PhD position, the gross monthly salary will be in accordance with the University regulations for academic personnel.

As can be seen in the table below, there are five different sources of funding. The employment conditions may also differ slightly, depending on the Faculty in which the PhD candidate is appointed.

No matter what the funding, all PhD candidates have a probation period, after which their supervisors will hold an assessment. Based on their work and progress during this probation period, a decision is made whether or not to extend their contract to the full period funded.

See Procedures for details 

Types of contracts

The table below specifies some important details associated with the different types of contracts possible at the ILLC, depending e.g. on the funding or the faculty in which you are employed. H: stands for the Faculty of Humanities, S: for the Faculty of Science. The term fte (full-time equivalent) is used to express the scope of a full-time appointment, expressed in hours. At the University of Amsterdam, 1 fte (full time) amounts to 38 hours a week, 0.5 fte is equivalent to 19 hours a week, etc.

Funding by	fte; duration; probation period	Teaching
UvA	H: 1; 4 years; 16 months	H: Yes
	S: 1; 4 years; 18 months	S: Yes
NWO (Dutch Science Foundation)	H: 1; 4 years; 16 months	H: Yes
	S: 1; 4 years; 18 months	S: Yes
EU/ERC	H: 1; 4 years; 16 months	H: Advised
	S: 1; 4 years; 18 months	S: Advised
Scholarships	1; 3 or 4 years; 12 months	no teaching
Self-funded	depends; depends; 12 months	no teaching

 

 

Contract extensions

You are expected to defend within the duration of your PhD appointment. However, it might happen that you are unable to meet this deadline. Official extension of your position is only possible in exceptional cases, such as long-term illness, maternity and parental leave; this requires a tailor-made decision.

In case of illness, maternity or parental leave, an extension equivalent to the period and percentage of your absence as registered by the UvA is possible.

A decision to grant you an extension also depends on the prospect of you finishing within the duration of the extension.

In all other cases ILLC will not support extension of contracts.

Defending well before end of contract

Sporadically, PhD candidates may graduate months before the end of their contract. If this is the case for you, please contact the ILLC Manager, Peter van Ormondt, at p.vanormondt at uva.nl.