ECTs

  • PhD candidates of the Graduate School of Life Sciences have to follow 20 ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) of education.
  • The 20 ECTS load is for the standard 4 years PhD program. PhD candidates that follow a different track can count 5 ECTS/year.
  • The minimum number of PhD years is two, which means that during this two years trajectory 10 ECTS need to be acquired.
  • A minimum of 40% should be spent on courses organized by the CTO program and a maximum of 20% on attendance of congresses and symposia. See tables below for examples.

European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) point tables

General information on the graduate school system, PhD programs and useful links can be found on www.umcutrecht.nl/research/student/phd

  4 years 3 years 2 years  
20 ECTS 15 ECTS 10 ECTS  
         
Courses/activities CTO 40% 8 ECTS 6 ECTS 4 ECTS
Generic courses 20%
Symposia/conferences 20%
Courses outside program 20%

 

Example 4 years/min. 20 ECTS

Category Course # days # times/4 yr Total ECTS
CTO Introduction course 3 1 1,5
         
Clinical Trial Development Course 3 1 1,5
         
Tumor type course 3 2 2
         
PhD retreat 1 4 1
         
Outpatient Clinic 1 5 1
         
Symposia organized by Cancer Center/CTO 1 3 1
         
Journal clubs (JC) 30 JC = 1 ECTS
  “Refereer” evenings     10x = 1 ECTS
  Oncology seminars     30x = 1ECTS
         
Total CTO 12
         
Generic courses see GS_LS website 4
         
Other Basic Oncology course (NvvO) 5 1 2
  Attending International Oncology Symposia (0.3 ECTS/day) 3 2 2 max
  Courses organized by other PhD programs 4 1 1
         
Total 21

 

Example 2 years/min. 10 ECTS

NB: in this example the total number of ECTS points is more than 10, which means that one can skip some courses. When you are following a 3 years PhD program, you can use this table as well but ensure that your generic courses make a total of 3 ECTS.

Category Course # days # times/2 yr Total ECTS
CTO Introduction course 3 1 1,5
         
Clinical Trial Development Course 3 1 1,5
         
Tumor type course 3 1 1
         
PhD retreat 1 2 0.5
         
Outpatient Clinic 1 2 0.5
         
Symposia organized by Cancer Center/CTO 1 2 0.6
         
Journal clubs (JC) 15 JC = 0.5 ECTS
  “Refereer” evenings     5 = 0.5 ECTS
  Oncology seminars     15x = 0.5 ECTS
         
Total CTO 8.1
         
Generic courses see GS_LS website 2
         
Other Basic Oncology course (NvvO) 5 1 2
  Attending International Oncology Symposia (0.3 ECTS/day) 3 1 1 max
  Courses organized by other PhD programs 4 1 1
         
Total 14.1

 

 

Upcoming

Advanced Molecular Pathology Course

27-28-29 June 2023

Quotes course 2021:

"Very good, leared a lot about the topic and very nice and inspirational speakers"

"Great organisation of the practical session which was very educational and gave me a lot of insight in the application of the knowledge we learned"

"Everything went smoothly, I noticed the effort that was taken for this"

"It covered very well all the aspects of molecular pathology and all the different parts in the hospital were it is applied"

 

CTO PhD retreat

(only for CTO members)

17 November 2023

Quotes PhD retreat 2022:

"Great tips on staying focused and very nice to hear about all the various career perspectives"

"Very interesting talks and nice to bond with fellow phds"

"beautiful location, interesting program, good catering; well done!"