Considering a PhD in the Netherlands

A PhD can be a wonderful job: for several years, you get paid to learn, think deeply about a subject, work on questions nobody yet knows the answer to, meet researchers from around the world, and gradually become an independent researcher. It can also be frustrating, uncertain and very dependent on your supervisors and working environment.

If you are considering a PhD, I would therefore spend at least as much time choosing the supervisors and research environment as choosing the research topic.

A lot of excellent advice about PhDs online was written for the US or Canadian system. Some of it transfers very well; some does not. In particular, a PhD in the Netherlands is usually a job, not the next stage of being a student. Most PhD candidates at Dutch universities are employees with a salary and employment rights, although other types of PhD positions also exist. The Universities of the Netherlands guide to the Dutch PhD system is a useful overview.

Below are some things I would think about before applying for, and especially before accepting, a PhD position in the Netherlands.

1. First: do you actually want to do research?

Being good at university courses is not the same as enjoying research.

In a course, somebody has selected the problems, knows that they are solvable, and usually knows the answer. Research is different. You may spend a week trying something that goes nowhere. You may discover after several months that the question you were answering was not quite the right question. You will regularly read papers that you do not understand. Especially at the beginning, it can be difficult to tell whether you are stuck because the problem is difficult, because you lack some knowledge, or because your approach simply does not work.

That uncertainty is not an unfortunate side effect of research. It is a large part of what research is.

So before starting a PhD, I would ask yourself questions such as:

You do not need to already be an independent researcher. Learning how to do research is the point of the PhD.

I particularly like Aaditya Ramdas's view of the PhD as a period in which you develop a collection of skills: technical depth, independence, judgement about which problems are worth pursuing, creativity, writing, speaking and other professional skills. Publications matter, but they are not the only measure of whether you are developing well as a researcher. His Checklists for Stat-ML PhD students are worth browsing even outside statistics and machine learning.

2. Find a project—and find out what you are applying for

In the Netherlands, PhD candidates are often recruited for a particular funded project. Vacancies are advertised like other academic jobs. A good place to look is AcademicTransfer.

Read the vacancy carefully, but also look beyond it.

Find the webpages of the prospective supervisors. Look at their recent publications. You certainly do not need to understand everything they have written, but you should have some idea of what kinds of questions they work on and whether those questions interest you.

This is one part of Csaba Szepesvári's advice for prospective students that I think generalises particularly well: do some homework before contacting a researcher. Generic emails saying only that somebody has an impressive profile and that you are “very interested in their esteemed research” tell them almost nothing. Knowing a little about their actual work makes it much easier for both sides to determine whether there might be a match.

At the same time, do not assume that the title of the project tells you exactly what you will spend four years doing. Ask:

How fixed is the research plan? Which parts were promised in the grant? How much freedom will I have to change direction? Are there particular methods, datasets or applications that I will be required to use? Are there external or industrial partners? Are there deadlines or deliverables beyond the dissertation itself?

Different answers are appropriate for different people. Some students thrive with a well-defined starting project; others want considerable freedom. What matters is knowing what you are signing up for.

3. Your supervisor may matter more than your topic

Research interests change. Supervisory relationships are much harder to change.

A very useful resource is The Definitive “what do I ask/look for” in a PhD Advisor Guide, linked from Ramdas's webpage. Ramdas explicitly notes that it is not his checklist; the document points readers to @andrewkuznet and credits several contributors. It contains many questions that are particularly useful because they concern how a supervisor actually behaves, rather than how impressive their CV is.

Things I would want to know include:

How often do you meet your PhD students individually? Who will supervise me on a day-to-day basis? How quickly do you normally give feedback on a draft? Are you relatively hands-on or hands-off? How much freedom do students have to develop their own questions? What do you do when a PhD student is stuck? How do you decide when a result is ready to publish? What do you expect from students in terms of papers, working hours, conference attendance and teaching?

In the Netherlands, also ask who your daily supervisor(s) and promotor(es) will be. These need not be the same people, and the most senior or famous name on a project may not be the person you work with every week.

Ask whether you can talk to current PhD candidates without the prospective supervisor present.

I would take that opportunity seriously. Ask them how often they actually meet their supervisors, how long feedback really takes, whether people take holidays, what happens when research goes badly, how much teaching there really is, and whether the atmosphere is collaborative.

No research group is perfect, and one person's preferred supervision style may be another person's nightmare. You are looking for compatibility, not perfection.

4. Remember that you are choosing a workplace

If you take an employed PhD position at a Dutch university, you are an employee. That means the employment conditions are not a minor administrative detail.

For university employees, many of these conditions are governed by the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO Nederlandse Universiteiten). It covers matters including salary, leave, pension and social security. The official Universities of the Netherlands page links to the current agreement and salary scales.

Before accepting an employed university PhD position, I would at least look through the CAO.

If your position is at a university medical centre, research institute, company or another organisation, a different collective labour agreement may apply. Ask explicitly which one.

Also establish what type of PhD candidate you will be. The Dutch system distinguishes several categories, including university-employed PhD candidates and candidates funded or employed in other ways. These differences can have substantial consequences for salary, pension and social-security rights. The Universities of the Netherlands guide explains these categories.

Do not assume that everyone doing a PhD in the Netherlands has the same arrangement.

5. Check the conditions of the actual vacancy

Promovendi Netwerk Nederland (PNN) has made a very useful PhD Vacancy Checklist. I would read this before accepting an offer. It covers exactly the sort of things that are easy to forget when you are mainly excited about the research: contract duration, FTE, salary scale, teaching, the applicable CAO, pension, holiday allowance, leave and other employment conditions.

In particular, I would check:

Contract. Is the contract for the full intended duration of the PhD? Is it full-time or part-time? If there is initially a shorter contract, under what conditions is it extended?

Teaching. How much teaching is expected? Ask for a percentage or number of hours rather than “a little teaching”. Does that number include preparation, marking and supervision?

Research expenses. Is there funding for conferences, workshops, summer schools, visits to collaborators, software, experiments or data?

Training. Is there a Graduate School or national research school? Which courses are required? How much time and money is reserved for them?

Workplace. Where are you expected to work? How often are the supervisors and other group members physically present? This matters more than it may seem, particularly if you are moving somewhere new.

Finishing. What happens if the dissertation is not finished when the employment contract ends?

For international candidates, also check practical matters such as visa support, relocation, housing, health insurance and taxation. Housing in several Dutch university cities can be particularly difficult, so this is worth investigating before committing to a move. The Dutch PhD journey guide has a short section on preparing for your stay.

6. Ask about the go/no-go

Many Dutch university PhDs have a formal evaluation relatively early in the appointment, often referred to as the go/no-go.

PNN's vacancy checklist recommends that vacancies make clear whether such an evaluation exists and when it takes place; it notes the maximum of 18 months under the university CAO.

Ask before you start:

Do not interpret the existence of a go/no-go as a reason to panic during your first year. Research takes time and everyone gets stuck. But you should know the formal rules that govern your employment.

7. Think about the culture, not just the science

You are going to spend a substantial part of roughly four years in this environment.

Do people discuss research with one another? Is there a regular seminar or group meeting? Do PhD students help each other? Are people comfortable admitting that they do not understand something? Are failed ideas discussed openly, or does everybody present only polished results?

Also look at more ordinary working culture. Do people routinely work evenings and weekends? Are messages outside working hours treated as urgent? Do people take holidays? What happens when somebody is ill? Are there colleagues at roughly your career stage?

A healthy research environment does not mean that everybody works in exactly the same way. It means that people can do excellent research without treating chronic overwork as evidence of seriousness.

Ramdas's checklist collection includes a checklist on maintaining work-life balance during a PhD. I particularly agree with the broader principle behind it: becoming a good researcher should not require making research your only identity.

8. Think beyond the PhD

You do not need a detailed ten-year career plan before beginning a PhD.

It is nevertheless worth asking what previous PhD candidates from the group have gone on to do. Some may have become academics; others may work in industry, government, healthcare, education or elsewhere.

A PhD is useful for many careers, but an academic permanent position should never be treated as the default endpoint that every successful PhD eventually reaches.

Think about what you would like to learn during these years even if you later leave academia. Depending on the field, that might include mathematical or methodological expertise, programming, experimental skills, data analysis, writing, public speaking, collaboration, teaching, project management or simply becoming unusually good at attacking difficult, poorly specified problems.

I think a useful question is:

If I knew now that I would not remain in academia after the PhD, would I still want to do this particular PhD?

If the answer is yes, that is a good sign.

Ten questions I would ask before accepting

If you remember nothing else from this page, I would find answers to these:

  1. Who will actually supervise me, and how often will we meet?

  2. Can I speak privately with current PhD candidates?

  3. How much freedom will I have to shape the research?

  4. What happens when a PhD student gets stuck?

  5. What are the real expectations concerning papers, teaching and working hours?

  6. What kind of employment contract is this, and which CAO applies?

  7. When and how does the go/no-go evaluation work?

  8. What funding is available for conferences, training and research expenses?

  9. What have previous PhD candidates from this group done afterwards?

  10. Would I still want this PhD if the topic changes, the first project fails, and I eventually take a job outside academia?

A PhD is long enough that there will almost certainly be setbacks, changes of direction and periods when you have no idea whether what you are doing will work. That is normal. A good project, good supervisors and a good environment make it possible to learn from those periods instead of merely surviving them.

Choose all three carefully.

Links and Dutch-system information last checked 16 September 2026.

Further reading and sources