PHD Candidates @ Employer

Pilot Study The pilot study All PhD candidates are expected to hand in a so-called pilot study for evaluation. Employed PhD candidates should do so no later than 9 months after the start of their contract. Self-funded candidates have up to 16 months (depending on the time the candidate can work on the dissertation, earlier is preferred) to hand in the pilot study. The pilot study is assessed by the supervisors, an external reader and the director or vice-director of ASH. The (vice-)director of the school decides on the basis of the assessments whether or not the PhD research is of sufficient quality and can be continued. If not, the contract (in cases of employed PhD candidates) and/or affiliation with the research school will be ended and their candidate cannot continue working on the Phd project at the UvA. Since the continuation of the PhD project depends on the quality of the pilot study, the timely completion of the pilot study should be the absolute priority for both the PhD candidate and the supervisors. Form and content of the pilot study The pilot study should be designed to form an integral part of the dissertation, EITHER as the introduction of the dissertation OR as a dissertation chapter. In any case, the pilot study should be: - a coherent, independently readable, non-fragmentary text; - between 5,000 and 10,000 words in length; - paired with a bibliography, a provisional table of contents for the full disseration, and an updated work plan for the remainder of the PhD project (preferably in the same document) In the case of an introduction, the pilot study should outline the main problem and research questions of the dissertation, as well as the theoretical framework, methods and objects used to address this problem and research questions in an innovative manner. It should also demonstrate the PhD candidate's ability to engage critically with existing scholarship. In the case of an article or chapter, the pilot stud...