Our part-time PhD program offers you the opportunity to combine your (part-time) job with conducting high-quality academic research that intends to make a significant scientific contribution and has practical and societal impact. Fulfillment of the program and successful completion and defense of your dissertation leads to a PhD degree from Nyenrode Business Universiteit.
Are you fascinated with and curious about problems and opportunities you encounter in your daily practice? Are you highly motivated to tackle business challenges that have a broad societal impact? Are you excited to further develop your academic and research skills to be able to address practically relevant questions in a rigorous fashion?
With our PhD program you can realize these ambitions in a supportive academic environment. You are supported in the (further) development of your academic, research and personal effectiveness skills.
The fields in which you can conduct your PhD research at Nyenrode include: Accounting, Auditing & Control; Corporate Reporting, Finance & Tax; Entrepreneurship, Governance and Stewardship; Marketing & Supply Chain Management and Strategy, Organization & Leadership.
Our PhD program consists of three consecutive phases. Here you find an infographic with a brief overview of the program.
During this phase, you will write your PhD research proposal. In order to develop the necessary skills to write this research proposal, you will take the required courses ‘Research Design & Planning’ and ‘Philosophy of Science’ and the required workshop ‘Academic Reading and Writing’ . You will be supervised by a full professor from Nyenrode.
PhD students who are interested in expanding their knowledge and skill sets could take additional non-mandatory workshops that are relevant in this phase (e.g., conducting a systematic literature review). This phase concludes with making a training- and development plan for the coming phases.
You complete various required courses, workshops and research electives (e.g., Research Data Management, Qualitative Research, Scientific Integrity). All PhD students are welcome to complete any other courses or workshops that are relevant for their PhD but are not part of their training and development plan. In small groups, PhD students can take part in intervision sessions facilitated by an experienced trainer. You will be regularly guided and coached by your supervisory team in your research.
In the last phase, you focus on the writing up of the dissertation. You will be guided and coached by your supervisor or supervisory team. In addition, you will take part in ‘Getting Published’ and conduct your trial PhD defense. If all goes well, you obtain your PhD degree after the defense: a great and honorable achievement. Truly a reward for life!
You can complete the PhD program in five years, but the process may take longer. If you have questions about the program, please contact us via phd@nyenrode.nl.
Each academic year, we host a PhD conference. During the conference, PhD students present their work-in-progress and take part in different workshop rounds to enhance their academic and personal effectiveness skills. Video: an impression of the 2019 edition.
You can submit your application for the part-time PhD program (2023-2024) until March 31st, 2023.
To be eligible to apply to our part-time PhD program, you need to meet the following criteria:
Each year, we allow 15 new part-time PhD students into our program. The admission and selection committee selects 15 participants based on the following:
To make its decision, the admission and selection committee may ask you to take a GMAT. An indication of the required score is above the 70th percentile (score 650+). If you have taken a GMAT test within the last five years, please upload your GMAT score report as part of the admission process.
Would you like to apply for our part-time PhD program? Please click the green button ‘apply online’. After your initial application has been received, we will send you an email outlining what we need to complete your application. You will be asked to upload the following documents:
Applicants who have obtained a degree outside of the Netherlands, will be asked for additional information as their degree will be checked by NUFFIC. If you obtained your degree outside of the Netherlands, you will therefore also need to upload:
After the application deadline of March 31st, 2023, you will be notified in April whether you will be invited for a selection interview. After all selection interviews have taken place, the admission and selection committee will inform applicants by June 30th, 2023 of the outcome of the selection process and whether you are eligible to enroll in our part-time PhD program starting September 2023.
Do you have any questions about the application process? Please contact us via phd@nyenrode.nl and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.
For more information regarding the fees, feel free to contact us.
* The fee does not cover the costs for books, overnight stays in our campus hotel, and travel expenses. The fees also do not cover visits to (international) academic conferences or PhD consortia (i.e., travel costs, conference fees).
Is your question not included? Please contact us and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
It is not possible to complete the PhD program from abroad.
Certain elements of the program can be completed virtually, such as the yearly progress talk and your participation in small group intervision sessions. In part, meetings with your supervisory team can take place virtually, although you will also need to meet with your supervisory team at least once a year in person.
Courses and workshops that are offered virtually or in a hybrid manner can also be completed from abroad. However, courses and workshops that are only offered live in Breukelen cannot be completed from abroad.
Please keep in mind that Nyenrode does not cover travel expenses or housing fees for (international) part-time PhD candidates. You should be able to guarantee that you are able to pay the travel and subsistence costs for regular visits to Nyenrode to follow and complete the required components of the program. Also, if applicable, you have to show that you have obtained the relevant visa and other permits to stay and study in the Netherlands.