Wageningen Doctoral Council

The Wageningen Doctoral Council (WDC) is composed of members of the six PhD Councils from each of the graduate schools in Wageningen University. The main task of the WDC is to provide a discussion platform in which the six PhD Councils of the graduate schools can work together on issues that are relevant for all doctoral candidates at Wageningen University.

The ultimate goal of the WDC is to improve the quality of the project tracks and the well-being of doctoral candidates at WUR.

The WDC discusses issues such as housing, quality of supervision, and the judicial position of doctoral candidates. These issues are discussed in internal meetings, which are held once a month, and in meetings with the Wageningen Dean of Research, the Rector Magnificus, the Executive Board, Idealis, the WUR Council and other relevant actors. The WDC functions as representative of all PhD candidates of the different graduate schools.

The WDC consist of different committees, each focusing on specific topics:

Representation: Being active and influential in the different internal/ external councils. Strengthening the bond with the graduate schools.
Communication: Being accessible and visible to all doctoral candidates and strengthening the communication channels with local councils.
Noncontract doctoral issues: Creating visibility and transparency. Working from the bottom-up to understand which communication levels are most relevant and realistic.
Doctorate conditions: Creating transparency of the discrepancy between different graduate schools and chair groups, making a “new normal”. Creating responsibility on the housing issue with the relevant stakeholders.

The WDC is always open for listening to suggestions, complaints, experiences, etc. If you have any, do not hesitate to contact us via phdcouncil@wur.nl or contact the PhD council of your graduate school (see list below).

Check our intranet page or Twitter account for updates about our work!

Graduate schools

Wageningen University acts as secretary for six graduate schools. Some of these are national graduate schools where Wageningen University is a major participants. Others consist entirely of research groups from Wageningen University. The graduate schools are joined under the umbrella organisation Wageningen Graduate Schools.