About Us

A PhD is the highest diploma awarded by universities in the world, and PhDs are naturally expected to take on major responsibilities. Apart from the disciplinary scientific skills acquired during study and research, a PhD is a time for self-development. Sometimes it is necessary to step aside and improve or discover new experiences.

The PhD Academy

In 1988 several Ph.D. candidates from Maastricht University decided to organize themselves in an association. The goal of this association was to represent the interests of all Ph.D. candidates of Maastricht University. Since 2007 the University started to financially support networking and education of Ph.D. candidates & Ph.D. Academy started officially with the financial support of the University.

The Ph.D. academy story is very connected to its logo. At first glance, the logo for Ph.D. Academy represents a graduate cap. The reason for this is the focus of Ph.D. Academy, which is to offer Ph.D. candidates a wide range of activities and in this way mingle people from every department of the University of Maastricht. This also brings us to the next two important elements of the logo; the people and the bridge with the ribbon, representing water, flowing beneath. The people are there to represent the social aspect of the organization and they are standing on a bridge, which resembles the iconic Sint Servaasbrug from Maastricht. In short, we organize educative, social, and fun activities for all Ph.D. candidates of Maastricht University. This is a place where bright minds mingle!

Committees

To have a better understanding of our current acitivites you need to figure out about our organization structure which is formed by its committees. Since there are multiple committees within Ph.D. Academy there are also versions of the logo with the addition of small symbols representing each committee. The six versions are shown below and are to be used by the committees for communications related to their activities.