14 October 2025

The Mare recently reported that the University will be charging fees for external PhDs, with a start date of April 1 2026. As you may know, the Faculty of Archaeology recently explored the possibility of fees for our PhD candidates, but we determined it was not necessary or desirable at the time.

Now the University has made the decision at the central level to charge external PhDs €1000 per year. There were many reasons for this decision, among others to make it clear that the mentoring and training provided by supervisors have value that has to be acknowledged, to help support the additional training opportunities for external PhDs, and to help motivate on-time completion of the PhD trajectory. 

Given the recent discussions within the Faculty and the board's official decision not to charge fees, we at Archaeology have been granted by the central board a three year transition period, during which we will not charge any fees. We will also use the time to assess how the process is enacted in other Faculties, and to work with our community to decide under which conditions we would offer fee exemptions. While the details have not yet been formalized, we anticipate taking the decision that fees would not apply to those who are (or will be) already enrolled.