Knowledge of the discipline

The primary criterion for admission to a doctoral programme is your academic ability: you must be well versed in the theory and methodology of your discipline.

Degree requirements

You meet the degree requirement if you hold a recognised and accredited Dutch Master’s degree or a comparable foreign qualification.

Do you have a foreign degree?

The Doctorate Board will assess whether your degree is equivalent to a Dutch Master’s degree. Before starting your PhD, you must submit a request for exemption from the statutory education requirement. Not every foreign Master’s programme is sufficient for admission. The fact that your programme abroad grants access to a doctoral programme does not guarantee admission.  

Have you already obtained a doctorate? Or are you also pursuing one elsewhere?

You cannot pursue a PhD at the UvA if you already hold a Dutch doctoral degree or a PhD. Nor are you eligible if you are already enrolled in a doctoral programme at another university. The only way to pursue a PhD both at the UvA and elsewhere is within the framework of a Joint Doctorate.

Language requirements

It is essential that you have a good command of English, as it is the lingua franca of academic research. A faculty or institute may set additional requirements regarding your language proficiency.

Requirements concerning your supervisors

You can only pursue a PhD at the UvA once an authorised supervisor has agreed to accept you as a PhD candidate. A doctoral research project can only take place under the supervision of at least one supervisor affiliated with the UvA who holds the right to award doctorates (a professor or another staff member who possesses the ius promovendi). In addition to the principal supervisor, a second supervisor must always be appointed. This may be a second principal supervisor or a co-supervisor.

Specific admission requirements

Bij een Graduate School of onderzoeksinstituut kunnen aanvullende toelatingseisen gelde voor een specifieke promotieplek. Die staan bijvoorbeeld in de vacatureomschrijving.