In case of a joint PhD, you prepare your PhD thesis in collaboration with and under the supervision of a promoter at another university.
A joint PhD implies that…
A joint PhD offers several advantages for both the PhD student:
and the university:
For the university, a joint PhD might be a starting point for a more intensive and formal cooperation with the partner university, which will lead to a greater exchange of knowledge and future opportunities for cooperation.
A joint PhD involves collaboration between two or more universities at home or abroad. The other university must:
Main institution versus partner institution
In order to make PhD work more efficient, one of the universities will always act as lead university and the other as partner university. Which university is the lead and which is the partner university will be determined in the agreement.
The partner university can fall back on legislation or regulations that make a joint PhD possible.
The candidate has obtained approval/admission from both partner universities to do this joint
PhD.
The candidate will stay at each partner institution for at least 6 months. This can be one or more stays.
The parties involved sign an agreement. The procedure concerning this individual agreement must be initiated at the latest 1 year before the expected defence by the promoter of the candidate via jointphd@uhasselt.be.
A PhD can be initiated as a joint PhD from the start, but can also be transferred to a joint PhD during the course of the PhD (at the latest 1 year before the defence).
For each joint PhD, an agreement needs to be drawn up. The agreement will be arranged individually for each PhD student (via the Directorate Research, Library and Internationalisation). If you have plans to start up a joint PhD, please contact your promoter.
If you have concrete plans for a joint PhD, the UHasselt promoter needs to report this to jointphd@uhasselt.be.
Read below how a joint PhD can be established step by step. For more information
In this case you need to follow the regular procedure for PhD students and do some additional obligations.
As goes for regular PhD students, you need to
The additional obligations you need to fulfill are described in step 2.
Suppose you are a PhD student and you are collaborating with another university for your research, then this collaboration may become structural during the course of your PhD. In such cases, it is possible to turn your UHasselt PhD into a joint PhD, based on this collaboration.
Please note:
As indicated, an individual agreement must be concluded with the partner university for each joint PhD. Individual agreements are also drawn up for universities with which we have a framework agreement
The UHasselt PhD promoter contacts jointphd@uhasselt.be (= Directorate Research, Library and Internationalisation) to initiate the joint PhD procedure.
Only the authorised administrative services are in charge of the agreement negotiations with the partner university. The negotiations result in a signed agreement.
Keep in mind that the procedure can take several months. As mentioned in the UHasselt PhD rules and regulations, a joint PhD must be reported to jointphd@uhasselt.be at least one year prior to defence.
Procedure end phase specific for joint PhD in collaboration with Maastricht University
If you are performing a joint PhD with Maastricht University for which an agreement was negotiated and signed and you want to start the end phase, read this document, and :