1 October 2026

The 2026 PhD Regulations will be published on 1 October 2026.  The Regulations contain a number of amendments. The most important of these are:

• The ius promovendi can from now on also be assigned to assistant and associate professors (see art. 6). Ius promovendi is the right of a scientist to confer a PhD;
• The remediation process for a dissertation that has not immediately been approved has been made clearer (see art. 25);
• A new article (32) has been added regarding the possible early termination of PhD tracks.

View a complete overview of all the changes.

Ius promovendi (the right to confer a PhD) for assistant professors

The conditions for assigning ius promovendi to scientists who are not full professors can now be found in article 6 of the PhD Regulations. According to this article, an academic staff member with the degree of Doctor or Doctor of Philosophy, will usually only be eligible for ius promovendi if they:

1. Are a very good researcher, which means they:
   
   a. have demonstrated that they have established a widely respected line of research at their own level; 
   b. have made a substantial contribution to acquiring the funds that have financed the PhD candidates for whom ius promovendi is requested, or have personally recruited the external PhD candidates.
    
2. Are a good supervisor, which means they: 
   
   a. have supervised at least two PhD candidates to a successful PhD defence at a Dutch university or the equivalent in a similar track at a foreign university;
   b. have successfully completed a training course on supervising PhD candidates.

Recognition and Rewards

This extension of ius promovendi is a further step in recognising and rewarding the role of assistant and associate professors in research and PhD tracks. The decision was already taken in 2024 that all co-supervisors and members of the examining committee may wear a robe and cap during the PhD ceremony.