Joyce Fongers

Unfortunately, the PhD Workshop on 24 March is cancelled in order to prevent further spread of the Coronavirus. You can no longer register for this event or make appointments with our delegates.

University of Groningen is represented by Joyce Fongers and Dr. Jorge Mario Salazar Rios. Joyce Fongers is Senior Policy Advisor for Latin America University of Groningen & Head International Graduate School of Medical Sciences (UMCG). Contact her at j.e.fongers@rug.nl.

The University of Groningen (UG, founded 1614) is one of the largest comprehensive research universities in the Netherlands with about 33 thousand bachelor & master students and more than two thousand PhD candidates. In recent years, UG has consistently ranked among the Top-100 of the world’s best universities (ARWU Shanghai & THE World University). UG has a broad offer of teaching and research programs at eleven faculties, ranging from Health Sciences, Life Sciences, and Science & Technology to the Social Sciences & Humanities.

At the PhD fair on Tuesday 24 March 2020 in Bogotá, UG is looking for prospective PhD students in any of the broader fields mentioned.

In 2019, a total of 546 students successfully defended their PhD thesis at UG. Approximately 50% of the PhD population is international and the large majority of PhD theses is written and defended in English. In those cases, no knowledge of Dutch is required.

In the Netherlands, only research universities may award PhD degrees and they do so based on their institutional accreditation as per Dutch law. This means that there are no separately accredited PhD programs as there are in Colombia. Instead, your admission to a UG doctoral program is based on two main criteria:

1. the availability of research expertise in the field of your interest, and the pre-acceptance by a supervisor affiliated to UG;
2. the availability of funding for the duration of your PhD program (about 4 years for a full PhD program).

In order to locate a researcher with expertise in your field, you may:

1. review the UG website (all fields) or the biomedical/health sciences website;
2. send an e-mail to Joyce Fongers with an English-language CV and a summary of your research project/interests.

In recent years Groningen has hosted many Colombian students with a Colciencias (and Colfuturo) PhD scholarship up to 48 months.

UG is unique in The Netherlands because under certain conditions it provides PhD students with a top-up of any national scholarship they have acquired: externally funded doctoral students currently receive a combined total of €1.840 per month.

In practice, this means that all Colombian PhD students admitted to UG and who successfully acquire a Colciencias grant will receive about €600 extra per month from UG.

For more information, please contact:

• Contact for general information & matching with potential supervisors: Joyce Fongers
• Contact with a Colombian post-doctoral researcher who obtained his PhD from Groningen: Alfredo Rios

Go back to overview of professors and recruiters attending the PhD Workshop in Bogota.