PhD at ITC | PhD Handbook | Home ITC (2024)

If you are interested in information about Enschede and activities and facilities, than please check this website:Visit Enschede (visit-enschede.com)

• Wellbeing

  PhD counselling

  The Twente Graduate School (TGS) offers PhD/EngD counselling through PhD/EngD counsellors of SACC. It consists of individual and easily accessible coaching offer with the focus on staying on track. Consult the PhD/EngD counsellor if you face obstacles during your PhD /EngD trajectory and if you need independent and confidential advice.Website:Counselling and advice | PhD/PDEng Counsellor | Home SACC (utwente.nl)

  Ombuds Officer

  The university’s Ombuds Officer serves both staff and students, providing advice on issues and difficult situations related to studying or working at the University of Twente. The Ombuds Officer’s primary role is to lend a sympathetic ear, and to provide advice, guidance and mediation services. If necessary, the Ombuds Officer can refer people to the appropriate authority, or the Officer may decide to investigate the matter personally. The Ombuds Officer is impartial and does not report to any other authority.Website:Integrity | Ombuds Officer | Organisation (utwente.nl)

  Confidential advisor

  You can talk to aconfidential advisorfor advice and support whenever you have to deal with unacceptable behaviour, like intimidation, (sexual) harassment, aggression, violence, discrimination, bullying or stalking, or when faced with a conflict in your work situation connected to such behaviour.
  Confidential adviser, complaints and disputes (vertrouwenspersoon, klachten en geschillen) | Service Portal | University of Twente (utwente.nl)

  Support and after care

  If you are/were a victim of or a witness to aggressive physical, verbal or psychological behaviour (including bullying) in the workplace or study place. In addition to actual pain, such as in the case of physical violence, aggressive verbal, physical and psychological behaviour at work can lead to psychological suffering and health issues such as anxiety, sleeping disorders, stomach pains and other psychosomatic complaints. It’s always best to talk to a professional soon after the incident occurs and know options of support is available! Webiste:Integrity | Support and after care | Organisation (utwente.nl)

  Legal support

  If you need legal support regarding private matters you can contact the Juridisch loket for free legal advice. You can go there between 9.00-11.00 without an apppointment or call them. The Juridisch loket is located accross the central trainstation in Enschede. You can check the website for more information:Enschede | Het Juridisch Loket

• PhD communities

  pITCom

  The PhD ITC Community (pITCom.) is the committee of and for the PhD community at the Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) of the University of Twente.pITComstarted in 2016. The main objectives of pITCom are:

  1. To act as the representative of PhD candidates at ITC.
  2. To foster and extend scientific and academic support between ITC PhD candidates.
  3. To stimulate and initiate education related activities, such as seminars, summer schools, information exchange and courses.
  4. To promote and support social activities for ITC PhD candidates.
  5. To assist PhD candidates who newly joined the ITC Faculty.

  PNUT

  The PhD Network of the University of Twente (P-NUT), the official PhD association of the University of Twente, created and run by PhDs. Checkthe websitefor more information.

  SENSE graduate School

  ITC is member of the SENSE graduate School. You can also enroll with courses provided by SENSE. you can checkthe websitefor more information. If you want to enroll in a SENSE course, please discuss this with your supervisor first. Every month you will receive a news letter form SENSE.

• (Administrative) support and lab/library facilities

  Research Management assistant (research support team): is your overall contact person for PhD candidates regarding your PhD trajectory. Also for questions concerning TGS, Hora Finita and the Doctorate Board you can contact the research management assistant.

  Secretarial support departments:Your daily contact for all matters within the department.

  Student affairs

  Contact for overall student well being. Covering social and cultural matters, emergencies at home, consular affairs and general student information.Student Affairs will invite PhD students for an intake meeting where you will be informed about all practical issues you will have to arragnge after arriving in Enschede.

  International Service Team

  All residence permits and extensionsfor PhD and family members are now arranged by the International Service Team at the UT. The ITC contact person is Rachel Santos r.t.santos@utwente.nl. You can send her a mail with questions regarding permits and IND requirements and she will be happy to help.

  ITC Library

  For information regarding research, research storage, writing asistance, search for information, journals etc. please the websiteITC Library

  ITC lab facilities

  For information regarding the ITC lab facilities, such as:
  Geo Science Lab - contact Kathrin Zweers
  Remote Sensing Lab - contact Petra Budde
  VISUSE lab - contact Roel Bossink

  Please check the website:

  Employee card

  As an employee PhD candidate or PhD student you will receive an UT employee card.You can use this card to identify yourself and use a number of facilities at the UT. The employee card is a strictly personal card, showing your employee number (m number) and your photo that you submitted when arranging your contract or guest agreement.

  Information about the employee card and were to pick it up can be found on this website:Employee card (Medewerkerskaart) | Service Portal | University of Twente (utwente.nl)

  If you are a new employee of ITC or PhD student, there is a different procedure for picking up your new employee card. This is because the new UT employee card is not working for the ITC building (yet).New employees or PhD students from ITC can collect their employee card at the Service Desk ITC. This can be done every Friday, from 14.00 – 15.00 hrs. Ms Mirande Droste arrange your card and will also make sure that you will have access to the bike shed and will be able to put money on your card to pay in the ITC restaurant.

• Twentse Graduate School (TGS) and Hora Finita

  All UT PhD candidates are enrolled inTGS. When you arrive in Enschede you will be invited for an intake meeting by TGS. You will need to attend this meeting, as TGS will give you all the information needed about your PhD trajectory, all the phases and Hora Finita (PhD tracking system) and all the facilities they can offer you. For example information about courses. TGS also organises introduction workshops (2 day event) for newly arrived PhD students, which you are expected to attend.

  Hora Finita Hora Finita

  HF is the PhD tracking system of the University of Twente. All steps of the PhD process, from registration all the way to PhD thesis defence, can be easily and conveniently documented in Hora Finita. You can find almanuals, forms and flowchartson the website.

  FAQ PhD charter / Hora Finita

  PhD info | FAQ | Twente Graduate School (utwente.nl)

  Phases in PhD trajectory (workflows)

  1. Registration & validation
  2. Research phase (part 1): Training and supervision plan (TSP), qualifier
  3. Research phase (part 2): Appointment supervisor, annual interview, T&SP element documentation
  4. Research phase (part 3): TSP portfolio check
  5. Graduation phase (part 1): Statement of near completion, defence date, committee composition approval, manuscript upload/approval, manuscript assessment, admission to public defence
  6. Graduation phase (part 2): upload/approval of title page, public defence announcement, printing manuscript, briefing with beadle, final logistical preparations

• Doctorate Board and regulations

  A public defence of a PhD thesis and award of the title “doctor” is taking place under the mandate of the Doctorate Board (by Dutch law WHW art. 7.18 and 7.19) and under the Doctoral Regulations of the University of Twente. A PhD dissertation reflects the work of, on average, four years of scientific research and training. The University of Twente recognizes diverse forms and formats of dissertations, including those based on designs, publications, and books. It should be emphasized that the quality and not the quantity of the chapters should determine the assessment by the Graduation Committee. The University of Twente does not impose a minimum or a maximum number of chapters. For more details we refer tothe Doctoral Regulationsmentionedabove andthe PhD Charter,in particular Article 4

• Courses and procedures

  Course finder

  Course finder CTD for PhD's, UT employees :UT courses for employees | University of Twente

  PhD Candidates following ITC courses

  When an employed/non-employed PHD candidate would like to attend an ITC course, the following steps have to be followed:

  1. The PhD candidate contacts the Course Coordinator for approval on attending the course.
  2. Once approved, the Course Coordinator adds the student to the Canvas page using the email addres.Education support office can assist.
  3. PhD candidates cannot register in Osiris, therefore EC credits obtained in Msc modulues have to be uploaded in Hora Finita using a signed declaration of the course examiner.You can download thedeclaration templatehere.
  4. For unclarities/questions contact the Course Coordinator.

  Complete procedure

  guidelines and procedure– can be foundhere

• Travel and procedures

  TRAVEL for PhD candidate (scholarship/external funding)

  If you need to travel this is the following procedure
  -prepare the followingtravel request form
  -make sure your research budget is checked (by the department secretary or budget holder) ánd the promotor approves and signs the form.
  -send the signed travel request form to the travel unit, email: travelunit@utwente.nl
  -no need to arrange extra travel insurance as you a covered via your AON complete+ insurance.

  TRAVEL for PhD candidate (financed by ITC)

  You can contact the department secretary for travel arrangements and applicable procedure and travel insurance.

• ITC logo and templates-visual identity

  ITC logo and templates

  On the ITC-MC Intranet page you can find the official ITC logo and presentation templates etc.
  Visual Identity | Visual identity | ITC Intranet

• Your PhD Thesis (printing, templates, procedures etc)

  As PhD candidate you are responsible for the layout, design and distribution of your thesis. And your are free to choose which printer you want to work with.

  There are two preffered suppliers availlable where you can print your thesis.
  1)Ipskamp(most of the UT PhD candidates work with Ipskamp, this printer is well known with the procedures and guides you through the process. A test print of your thesis is possible.As PhD candidate you contact the printer yourself.Website with specific PhD thesis printing information:Home - Proefschriften)
  2)CTRL-P(a smaller printers office and prints mainly ITC theses. You can contact them directly but at this moment you send your print-ready version of the thesis and cover to Annelies Klos, she orders the books andfrom that point on PhD has contact with printer, no test print of the thesis is possible)

  Please check this website for information and costsPrinting of doctoral thesis (Proefschrift drukken) | Service Portal | University of Twente (utwente.nl)

  Support for your cover design is available:

  • Contact for cover design: Job Duim (j.duim-1@utwente.nl)

  Templatesfor your thesis are available in Word and LaTex.
  Check the website of the ITC library for more information aboutthe LaTex template(use the overleaf template, as instructed on the webpage)
  You can find the Word templatehere

  General information University of Twente concerning printing your thesis:
  Printing of doctoral thesis (Proefschrift drukken) | Service Portal | University of Twente

  Application ISBN and DOI

  • Before printing the dissertation, you will have make an online request for an ISBN at the University Library. The University Library will take care of a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) linked to the ISBN. The DOI is important for the online retrieval of the dissertation. You can apply ISBN/DOI viathe website.

  ITC dissertation number

  • Contact Annelies Klos for a ITC dissertation number.

  Distribution of your thesis

  Take to account that you will need to distribute your thesis to your committee members, beadle and library
  12 hardcopies to the beadle (in case of an online defense 2 hardcopies, in case of 1,5m defense 8 copies)
  1 hardcopy to the ITC library
  4-8 hardcopies for the committee members including supervisors and chair, depending on how many committee members are selected. Please ensure the committee members, supervisors and chair receive at least a digital copy.

• Public defense ceremony (procedures, meetings, reception etc)

  
  PUBLIC DEFENSE CEREMONY

  We are very happy to inform you that the government measures have been relaxed to such an extent that the Doctorate Board can allow the PhD candidates to invite a larger number of guests (max. number of persons incl. candidate and graduation committee is 75). You will have to keep 1,5-meter distance and wear a face mask, provided the room’s ventilation can safely accommodate the people present. It is also possible to organize a reception in the foyer of the Waaier. What does this mean for the organization of your defence?

  1. All committee members may attend the defence at the university. It is still possible to participate online.
  2. PhD candidates are asked toinform the beadles Mr. Wim Koehorst or Mr. Raymond Linderhof (pedel@utwente.nl) as soon as possible which committee member will be at the UT and who will be attending the defence online.
  3. If the COVID-pandemic has taught us anything, it is that sometimes, plans need to change. That is why the Doctorate Board will send (on the Monday before the scheduled defence) all committee members the information they need to join the defence online. That way everyone can decide until the day of the defence whether they can come to the University of Twente or join the defence online.
  4. The defence will be live streamed for those who do not want or cannot come to the University of Twente.
  5. The Doctorate Boardwill continue to offer the option to organize a PhD defence fully online, if needed. However, the new regulation may lead you to reconsider your choice for either a fully digital or a partly digital defence.

  When a PhD defense isfully or partial digital, the PhD candidate, committee members and the promotors connect through a video connection, they do not come to the University but join through their laptops or computers. The chair and the beadle join the ceremony from the university. Live streaming is available to make it a public defence.
  The doctorate board will contact the PhD candidate and committee members and supervisor(s) in time (few weeks before the defense) about the set up of your ceremony (on site or digital). The Doctorate Board will send the PhD candidate, committee members, supervisor(s) and the chair, the detailed instructions for the ceremonyon the Monday before the actual defence.

  The doctorate board will contact you in time (few weeks before the defense) about the set up of your ceremony (on site or digital)

  Defense time slots (see doctoral regulations):
  

  Photographer

  During the ceremony a photographer will make pictures during the whole ceremony. This is automatically arranged for ITC public defences. The costs of the photographer are a part of the research budget of each PhD students. Actual costs €250 (paid by PhD candidate or department)

  Meeting Beadle and Chair

  The Beadle is responsible for the final organization of the doctoral defence ceremony. The doctoral candidate should contact him in good time for information about the whole procedure relating to the ceremony (e-mail: pedel@utwente.nl ; telephone number: 053 4895899).

  The doctoral candidate is expected to introduce himself to the Chair of the Graduation Committee at least one week prior to the doctoral defence ceremony.

  Reception after your ceremony

  It is possible to organize a reception again following your defense. If the doctoral candidate wants to organize a reception following the defence, he/she can contact Renate Drok (phone +31-618414331 or Marco Smilde (+31-618742469) or send an email tobanqueting@utwente.nlfor information about availability and prices and the final arrangements.You can also checkthe websitefor the posibilities.Costs for a reception is approximately €10-€15 euro per person.

  Paranymphs and clothing during the ceremony

  In case of a 1,5 m defense or a defense without any COVID measures, you can bring max. two ceremonial assistants, your paranymphs, to the ceremony. The doctoral candidate must therefore wear a formal tailcoat or dark suit and accompanying paranymphs must wear (morning) suits. Female doctoral candidates must wear appropriate clothing in grey/black/blue. International doctoral candidates may wear appropriate traditional dress from their country of origin during the defence ceremony.If you don't have the proper suits you can rent them atAimee.

  Overview PhD defenses

  On the ITC website you can find the upcoming PhD defences ánd all the UT defences (via the Doctorate Board). Right before your defense the Doctorate Board will publish the announcement of your defence including the names of your supervisors and a short abstract (if available).
  website:Research | PhD Defence dates | Home ITC