About This Course

The pre-doctoral programme offered by the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam is specifically designed to meet the needs of doctoral-level international students. The ambition is to support prospective Indonesian PhD students with a better preparation for their PhD trajectories. This intensive programme equips participants with essential research skills to help them navigate common PhD challenges. 

This programme consists of two phases: an online phase in September 2025 (Phase 1) and a face-to-face phase in October 2025 (Phase 2). Through a series of intensive sessions the PhD students will get a deeper understanding of the relevance of their topic, its integration within broader streams of literature and identify the appropriate methodology(ies) to tackle the addressed topic.

This intensive course is designed to enhance essential academic skills for the development of PhD proposals. It emphasizes critical components of research proposal development, including:

1. Generating innovative research ideas
2. Conducting a thorough literature review
3. Formulating a clear research problem linked to research questions or objectives
4. Developing a conceptual framework that captures the necessary information to address those questions
5. Developing a research design that includes appropriate methodologies for each research question