GUIDELINES
FOR DRAWING UP CONTRACTS FOR
JOINT DOCTORAL SUPERVISION
AND
DUAL DEGREES
Guidelines contracts for Joint Doctoral Supervision and Dual Degrees
August 2014
Page 1
GUIDELINES FOR DRAWING UP CONTRACTS FOR JOINT DOCTORAL
SUPERVISION AND DUAL DEGREES
Dutch Law has made provisions for a Joint Doctorate, that is to say a single diploma for the successful
completion of a doctoral research project that is jointly supervised with another institution for higher
education, mostly outside the Netherlands. Within the TU Delft there has been a steady increase of
initiatives towards setting up PhD programmes with (mostly) foreign academic institutions. As a
result, the faculties put in requests for processing agreements concerning international cooperation
and PhD supervision. Those requesting and/or drawing up the agreements often find themselves
searching for previous examples of similar agreements, policies of international cooperation or
official procedural support. A pilot project at TPM has led to conclusions for the desirable and
possible forms of Joint Doctorates and given input for these guidelines. This step-by-step guide helps
to overcome the information gap.
a. A joint doctoral supervision resulting in one (single), joint degree and diploma (under one set
of regulations including evaluations) is generally impractical and will not be supported by the
Board for Doctorates of TU Delft.
b. If a long-standing collaboration exists or is foreseen, the Board for Doctorates prefers a
scheme with a single diploma per partner resulting in one diploma per Doctoral candidate;
diplomas are in numbers equally balanced among the partners. In fact, each partner issues
its own degree and diploma under its own regulations. The cooperation agreement deals
only with the research that is performed jointly. Therefore, only the general scientific
cooperation agreement between the partners is needed (step /model 1 hereafter) and no
‘joint doctoral supervision / dual diploma’ agreement is necessary (step /model 2 hereafter).
c. If a long standing collaboration exists or is foreseen and a single diploma scheme, as
mentioned in b, is not feasible or acceptable, the Board for Doctorates will consider a socalled dual diploma scheme: each of the partners has its own diploma, but each diploma
contains a text that explicitly refers to the joint supervision of the thesis. The Doctoral
candidate will receive a number of dual diploma’s equal to the number of partners in the
agreement. These guidelines are mainly for this type of cooperation that will result in dual
degrees. Two model-contracts are provided to support the initial steps in the negotiations
with the partners.
d. One should be very restrained in setting up joint doctoral supervision that aims for double or
multiple diplomas (and degrees). The workload associated with setting up the agreements,
and monitoring and implementing the process can be considerable. Furthermore, the
condition that the defence should be firstly performed at TU Delft may cause a difficulty in
the negotiations. Only long-standing collaborations with a considerable amount of Doctoral
candidates should be considered for such scheme. For projects with only a few Doctoral
candidates, TU Delft will not issue a double diploma.
Guidelines contracts for Joint Doctoral Supervision and Dual Degrees
August 2014
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Proposals for cooperation must be submitted to the Office of the Executive Board for the attention of
the Board for Doctorates. The Board for Doctorates will seek advice from the Joint Education
Assessment Committee, where it will be reviewed according to a general set of quality standards.
These standards will be based on the Graduate School guidelines and the Doctorate Regulations of
the TU Delft that are pertinent to the quality of supervision during the entire course, doctoral
education, the make-up of the Doctoral Committee, assessment and defence of theses, protocol and
location of the defence. Furthermore, corporate strategic benefits associated with such partner
agreement will be considered as well.
THESE GUIDELINES ARE PRIMARILY INTENDED FOR AGREEMENTS THAT WILL RESULT IN DUAL
DIPLOMA’S (EACH PARTNER PRODUCES A DIPLOMA, WHICH ARE EXPLICITLY LINKED), AS
MENTIONED IN C ABOVE. THESE FORMS OF COOPERATION ARE SUBJECT TO A NUMBER OF CLEAR,
MANDATORY CONDITIONS. MODELS AND THEIR ASSOCIATED WORKING PROCEDURE ARE
PROVIDED AS SUPPORT. IT IS RECOMMENDED TO ALWAYS SEEK ADVICE FROM THE BOARD FOR
DOCTORATES BEFORE NEGOTIATIONS WITH PARTNER INSTITUTIONS ARE STARTED.
Step 1: The partner institution is manifestly of sound quality and status, and maintains a
specified standard of quality. A cooperation agreement exists. (Model cooperation agreement)
Before any form of cooperation can be entered upon, the quality of the partner institution must be
known or assessed. Evaluation tools include national and international rankings, national
accreditation, specific experiences in cooperation and the institution’s internal quality control. The
Executive Board will request the advice of the Joint Education Assessment Committee, before
deciding on approval of a new partnership for doctoral supervision of Dual Diploma programs.
If the intention is to undertake a long-lasting cooperation with one or more universities, it may be
appropriate to first sign a general agreement between the Executive Boards, on the basis of the
“master” agreement: Model agreement Academic and Scientific Cooperation. You should procure
the advice of Legal Services if you wish to depart from the terms of this model.
The existence of such a cooperation agreement is mandatory for the following step: negotiations for
a separate agreement on Joint Doctoral Supervision and Dual Diploma (see Step 2).
Guidelines contracts for Joint Doctoral Supervision and Dual Degrees
August 2014
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Step 2. Supervision of the Doctoral candidate and enforcement of the Doctoral Regulations that
allow for Dual Diploma (Model agreement joint PhD)
* THIS IS THE MAIN STEP UNDER THESE GUIDELINES *
TU Delft has developed a special model for these cases: Model agreement joint PhD: Joint
Supervision and Dual Diploma. You should procure the advice of Legal Services if you wish to depart
from the terms of this model.
Signing:
The “Model agreement joint PhD” must be signed by the Chairman of the Board for Doctorates; at
TU Delft this is the same person as the Rector, because all forms of joint doctorates must be
approved by the Board for Doctorates. The Joint Education Assessment Committee performs a check
on the good quality of the partner institution, as commissioned by the Executive Board. The Dean can
be granted a mandate to finalise the agreement, acting on behalf of the Chairman of the Board for
Doctorates / Rector Magnificus. The supervisors must always add their signatures.
Step 2a Appendix A: Doctoral Education Programme
(This is an appendix to the “Model agreement Joint PhD”)
The supervisors draw up a Doctoral Education Programme (see Appendix A: Doctoral Education
Programme) together with the Doctoral candidate, which details the area of research and the subject
of the thesis, as well as:
A: Generic skills
B: Research related Skills
C: Discipline Related Skills
(in line with the guidelines and policy of the Graduate School and Doctorate Regulations of Delft
University of Technology)
Deviations from this scheme must always be approved by the Board for Doctorates after it has been
signed by the supervisors of the Doctoral candidate. The Board for Doctorates takes the advice of the
Joint Education Assessment Committee into consideration. The Graduate Office offers professional
support for this undertaking.
Supplements:
1) Model agreement Academic and Scientific Cooperation
2) Model agreement joint PhD: Joint Supervision and Dual Diploma
with Appendix A: Doctoral Education Programme
Guidelines contracts for Joint Doctoral Supervision and Dual Degrees
August 2014
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Signature warrants
President
RM
or VPEO
Model agreement Academic and Scientific
cooperation
Model agreement joint PhD
Chairman
Board for
Doctorates
Doctoral Research
Supervisor
X
X
X
X
Doctoral candidate
X1
when candidate is known
App. A: Doctoral Education Programme
If not in line with Doctorate Regulations
1
X
X
The Dean may be authorised by the Executive Board to sign the agreement
Guidelines contracts for Joint Doctoral Supervision and Dual Degrees
August 2014
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