TPM Graduate School

Welcome to TPM Graduate School!

The TPM Graduate School, as part of TU Delft Graduate School, offers you a stimulating environment for obtaining a doctoral degree with the highest possible value for your career. You will have the opportunity to immerse in high-impact research projects across a variety of disciplines and to benefit from close interactions with world-class researchers and lecturers.

In addition, TPM-Graduate School and TU Delft Graduate School together offer you support in administrative matters, career counseling, and other issues that may arise during the PhD process.

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Current PhD Candidates (login)

Vacancies at TPM

TU Delft Graduate School

Finding a position

Doing a PhD at TPM is different from doing a BSc or MSc, where you apply for the programme and show up for courses at the start of the semester. In the PhD programme you either apply to an existing funded vacancy in the research programmes, or apply with external funding that you have obtained yourself.

Within our departments projects are funded which can offer paid PhD positions. Or you can contact one of our professors whose work you find interesting, to see if they think you would fit upcoming opportunities.

Admission

The admission requirements for doctoral candidates are recorded in Article 2 of theTU Delft Doctoral Regulations. More detailed information can be found in the back of the Regulations, in section A of the Implementation Decree.

Admission requirements

To apply for a PhD position you must:

Be familiar with the theory and methodology of the research field
Have a Dutch master’s degree (or a foreign equivalent)
Be proficient in English

Please read the job description carefully for any additional requirements.

English language requirement

Doing a PhD at TU Delft requires English proficiency at a certain level to ensure that you are able to:

Communicate and interact well
Participate in English-taught Doctoral Education courses
Write scientific articles and your dissertation
Successfully defend your PhD dissertation

Here's the minimum requirement if you want to apply for a PhD or EngD programme at TU Delft:

IELTS
Overall band score is 7.0 (with scores of at least 6.5 for all sections)
TOEFL
Overall band score is 100 (with scores of at least 22 for all sections)
Note: The TOEFL iBT Home Edition is accepted for the English proficiency, the TOEFL MyBest scores is not accepted.
Cambridge Assessment English
C1 Advanced (Certificate of Advanced English) with an overall score of 185 C2 Proficiency (Certificate of Proficiency in English) with an overall score of 185

You do not need to present the test results as part of your application; these results will be requested at a later stage during the selection procedure.

Exemptions from English proficiency test

Native speakers will be exempt from the English test requirement, as well as, in principle, non-native applicants who have obtained an English-taught Master’s degree. If during the selection process it is deemed that the English proficiency of the candidate with an English-taught Master’s degree does not meet the requirements, they may also be asked to do a placement test. This test can only be taken at TU Delft and not online.

More about admission

Fees & Funding

TU Delft considers the supervision of doctoral candidates to be of paramount importance. With the founding of the Graduate School, the TU Delft offers doctoral candidates an excellent learning environment, inspiring supervision, and a highly valued Doctoral Education programme. TU Delft attaches great value to the high-quality supervision of its doctoral programmes, both in terms of content and the services provided. As of 1 January 2016 TU Delft requires a contribution to cover the costs for the support of the doctoral programmes. These costs are split in a tuition fee and a bench fee.

The tuition fee is a contribution to the cost of supporting, supervising and training a doctoral candidate.
The tuition fee also covers costs of travel and accommodation for one of more conferences in which PhD candidate give a paper presentation to an international audience (after approval by promotor).
The bench fee is a contribution to the costs incurred in the provision of workspaces and laboratories.
The tuition fee is 11.000 euros once only.
The bench fee is 10.000 euros per year.
The fee is charged to the institution that is funding the doctoral candidate.

It is also possible to pursue a PhD with other sources of funding, such as company sponsorship or an academic scholarship. In these cases, you can contact the professors in whose research field your work will best fit.

If you plan to attain your PhD at the faculty of TPM as a PhD candidate with a scholarship, we expect your scholarship to cover living costs in the Netherlands as well as our Graduate School’s tuition fee and bench fee. Living costs are estimated at a minimum of € 1462,41 per month for a single person and € 2089,16 per month for a couple or family (or: 48 x € 1462,41 = € 70.195,68 /48 x € 2089,16 = € 100.279,68 for the entire course of your PhD-trajectory).

More about fees and funding

TU Delft Graduate School

More about TU Delft PhD programme

Vacancies at TPM

PhD programme

We know you have a passion for research and science (that’s why you are reading this page). Joining a PhD programme at TU Delft might be the right choice for you. As a PhD candidate, you have the opportunity to choose from a wide range of research areas, spread across eight faculties. During the four years of the PhD programme you will be conducting research, developing new knowledge and writing your dissertation. An inspiring environment and challenging programme that will help you become an independent researcher and a skilled professional. Academic excellence starts in Delft.