Practical Information

More information related to the GP-OML PhD course program

  • Fall semester: September – December / Spring semester: January – June.
  • Courses are usually given on Wednesdays.
  • Location: Boswell-Beta Institute, Daltonlaan 400, Utrecht. Car: free parking in the vincinity of the building. Public transport: take bus 28 from Untrecht Central Station – exit the bus at ‘Rijnsweerd Zuid’.Course days run from 10:00-16:00 h. 
  • All courses are taught in English.
  • For all courses, there will be an assignment. 
  • The courses are open to all PhD students within the area of OML, and also to students from research masters and honors tracks of master programs.
  • Credits 4-day courses: 1 ECTS for participating / 4 ECTS for participating & passing the assignment.
  • Credits 2-day courses: 0.5 ECTS for participating / 2 ECTS for participating & passing the assignment.

  • Participation is free for groups that are part of TRAIL/Beta/ERIM.
  • For other participants, the fees are as follows: 500 Euro per PhD course for students (PhD students, research master students, honors track students) of groups that are not part of TRAIL/Beta/ERIM, and 1000 Euro per PhD course for participants from the industry and the governmental sector.
  • We distinguish the following courses:
    1. Permanent courses with a workload of 4 ects
    2. Permanent courses with a workload of 2 ects
    3. Capita selecta course on new subject of 2 ects
    4. Capita selecta course given once by an external guest researcher of 2 ects
  • We distinguish domain-oriented courses and methodological courses. Of the regular courses given to date, the course ‘Machine learning’ can be regarded as a methodological course. Other courses are on e.g., inventory, transport, and facility logistics. These are called domain-oriented courses.
  • Each domain-oriented course is led by a senior researcher who is internationally known as a scientific expert on the topic of the course. The content of the course is in line with current developments in the field. The course forms a basis for positioning current and potential new subjects of research.
  • Each methodological course is led by a senior researcher who is aware of the latest developments regarding this methodology and who can demonstrate the methodology on the basis of recent research.
  • The senior researcher who leads a course can involve fellow lecturers as long as they are highly qualified. The senior researcher is expected to give at least half of the course.
  • In each course, there is a form of examination (often assignments). Participants get graded and their grades appear on their certificates. Summer schools with a form of examination (e.g., an assignment) must at least be assessed with pass/fail.
  • All courses are evaluated by both lecturers and participants. If the evaluation of a course is low, we expect that course will be adjusted based on the feedback.
  • Participants are required to attend all classes. Only in exceptional cases (e.g. illness, funeral, presenting own research at international conference) a participant can miss a course day. A motivated request for absence should be send to the GP-OML office that will check whether the reason is accepted. At most 1 course day per course may be missed in order to get a certificate.
  • Participants who only participate in a course without doing the examination, will receive 25% of the credit points. Note that these participants are required to also attend all course days (cf. point above).