EUR Graduate schools, research schools & institutes

As a PhD candidate at Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR), you will be part of a Graduate School and a faculty (school). Read more about the research environment of EUR and view the overview of the current organisational units.

Schools (faculties)

Erasmus University Rotterdam consists of seven schools, two institutes and a university college with their own administration. Faculties (or schools) can encompass more than one Graduate School. 

As a PhD candidate, you will be part of one of the EUR Graduate Schools and Institutes. They train doctoral candidates to become autonomous researchers and highly qualified professionals. Also, they make sure that you will find your place within in the broader research community of EUR and in a network of peers. Have a look at the disciplines that are represented within the graduate schools and research institutes.

The Erasmus Graduate School of Social Sciences and the Humanities (EGSH) is a largest course delivery institute for PhD candidates at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. The school is not involved into admission process of PhDs.

The School encourages and fosters a multidisciplinary research culture. The EGSH is a joint venture of 4 schools and 2 research institutes.

The EGSH itself is not involved in the admission of PhD candidates. If you obtain a PhD position at one of the mentioned schools or institutes, you will become part of the ESGH.

Academic disciplines and research fields

A total of 11 fields of research are represented within the Erasmus Graduate School of Social Science and Humanities.

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EGSL is the Graduate School of Erasmus School of Law (ESL). Since the start of EGSL in September 2012, it assists PhD researchers in the first phase of their appointment in elaborating their doctoral proposal and guide them towards successful completion of their PhD by the end of the fourth year.

EGSL provides a supportive, international research environment in which critical reflection, a multidisciplinary approach of the various legal disciplines and the exchange of ideas and experience of all ESL researchers play a substantial role. By creating inspiring and dynamic research- and work environments, where senior and junior researchers meet and learn from each other, EGSL aims to deliver outstanding, socially engaged and inspired academic professionals.

Academic disciplines and research fields

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Consistently ranked in the top of management research centres in Europe, the Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM) has created an environment for the development of internationally recognised management knowledge with academic and societal impact since 1998.

ERIM researchers, a community of over 350 management scientists, are focused on the real needs of business and management, and dedicated to produce relevant and excellent research that adds innovative dimensions to management knowledge. ERIM combines publishing in leading academic journals with effective dissemination through research projects and an advanced doctoral programme in business and management for aspiring researchers. Where possible, research is created in conjunction with business.

Academic disciplines and research fields

ERIM offers PhD programmes in five key research areas:

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Tinbergen Institute (TI) is the graduate school and research institute operated jointly by the Schools of Economics and Econometrics of Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR), University of Amsterdam (UvA) and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU). 

Founded in 1987, TI is today one of the major economic research institutes in the Netherlands, with more than 150 research fellows, over 200 PhD and research master students and over 700 PhD alumni. Tinbergen Institute is named after Professor Jan Tinbergen, the Dutch Nobel Prize laureate in Economics (1969). TI has offices in both Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

The cooperation between the three economics faculties in the institute offers many benefits. The programme offers a wide array of field courses, and students will find that supervision is available in almost every field within economics. 

Academic disciplines and fields

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Business professionals interested in further developing their academic skills while researching their own business activity or industry can now take part in academic study and research at the same time as working. This new four-to-five year programme leads to a PhD degree from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM).

RSM’s Part-time PhD Programme in Management (PT PhD) started in September 2015. It has the academic rigour of a full-time PhD degree, and produces new and practical knowledge that can be absolutely relevant to your particular area of business.

Academic disciplines and research fields

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PhD candidates of the Erasmus MC are part of the Erasmus MC Graduate School. Erasmus MC Graduate School is the hub for graduate programmes at both Research Master and PhD level to educate and train world-class biomedical academics in a stimulating environment. It is a platform for both current programmes as well as for new initiatives within the convergence of Erasmus MC with TU Delft and EUR. Within this scope, the educational programs focus on health, technology, society, and their interplay.

PhD education

PhD education in Erasmus MC Graduate School is divided over four PhD Tracks: a Core Track with courses that are applicable for all PhD candidates (such as Scientific Integrity, Academic writing, personal development) and three content-based Tracks: Health sciences, Clinical Sciences and Biomedical Sciences. Irrespective of PhD project, all PhD candidates are welcome to follow any course in any track.

ISS offers a four-year programme leading to the internationally recognized degree of Doctor. Since the inception of the programme in the 1980s, ISS has awarded 200 PhD degrees. All PhD researchers are firmly embedded in ISS' research programme. Since joining Erasmus University in Rotterdam 2009, ISS PhD researchers now receive an Erasmus University PhD Degree.

Academic disciplines and research fields

The International Institute of Social Studies has identified four cross-cutting themes which integrate the Institute's research efforts. 

The Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS) is an education, advisory and research institute which falls under the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences and the Erasmus School of Economics. For 60 years, it has been our mission to develop human and institutional capacities, to reduce poverty and improve the quality of life in cities.

IHS offers a 4-year flexible PhD trajectory on Urban Development & Governance, which fuses urban management with governance. 

Academic disciplines and research fields

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DRIFT is a world-leading institute for research on and for sustainability transitions. Academics at DRIFT conduct interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research to better understand and facilitate new ways of thinking, doing and organising in contemporary transitions. Besides positions in funded research projects, DRIFT also welcomes PhD candidates who have their own research proposal and are able to secure funding for their project through private resources or grants.

Academic disciplines and research fields

Unique about DRIFT's approach in the field of Transition Studies is that academics study the broader social challenges of sustainability transitions, including economic, political and cultural perspectives on transitions. DRIFT's particular expertise in transition governance sparks a continued curiosity into new governance notions, the paradoxes of change and the political struggles and dilemmas accompanying transitions and transition governance.

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