Joyce Fongers

Unfortunately, the PhD Workshop on 28 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, dr. Mónica Acuautla Meneses, Amaranta Luna Arteaga and prof. dr. Caspar van den Berg. 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 Saturday 28 March 2020 in Mexico-City, 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
3. contact any of the other UG delegates present at the fair in Mexico as listed below under “more information”

UG was the first Dutch university to sign an agreement with CONACYT for the funding of Mexican PhD students, already in 2009. Since then, Groningen has hosted many Mexican students with a CONACYT PhD scholarship. We expect this number only to increase, particularly also because of the close sandwich PhD collaboration with UNAM.

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 Mexican PhD students admitted to UG and who successfully acquire a CONACYT grant for full PhD studies abroad will receive about €650 extra per month from UG.

Present at the fair in Mexico City on Saturday 28 March:

• Contact for general information & matching with potential supervisors: Joyce Fongers
• Contact with the Faculty of Science & Engineering: dr. Mónica Acuautla
• Contact with Campus Fryslan: Amaranta Luna Arteaga & prof. dr. Caspar van den Berg
• Contact with the UG representative in Mexico based at UNAM: Nidia Pantaleón

Former Mexican PhD student:

• Contact with a former Mexican student who obtained her PhD from Groningen: Andrea Monroy

Go back to overview of professors and recruiters attending the PhD Workshop in Mexico-City.