PhD position on language and academic achievement

We are hiring two PhD-candidates for a project that investigates language-related degree-awarding gaps in Dutch higher education. Are you interested in using big data for investigating the role of language in education, and in conducting team science? Apply now!

Dutch higher education is populated by students from many different language and cultural backgrounds. Ideally, these diverse backgrounds make no difference for academic achievement. However, research demonstrates that language-related degree-awarding gaps exist. Specifically, students from non-native language backgrounds are less likely to succeed academically. You will be part of a team of researchers that aims to increase our understanding of the role of language in academic achievement in higher education.

Your specific subproject adopts an individual differences approach to investigate to what extent academic achievement in Higher Education (HE) is related to students’ language backgrounds and study program characteristics. You will conduct a series of studies: a literature review on the factors causing language-related degree-awarding gaps; constructing and analyzing a large set of student data (in collaboration with the UvA data department); conducting in depth studies on a subset of UvA students to investigate the role of psychological variables (e.g., motivation) and curriculum characteristics (e.g., number of writing courses).

This project is funded by NRO (Netherlands Initiative for Educational Research) and includes additional time for you to develop your teaching activities.

This is what you will be doing

• Reviewing literature on the factors underlying language-related degree-awarding gaps;
• Constructing and analyzing a large set of student data;
• Carrying out in-depth studies to investigate the role of psychological variables and curriculum characteristics;
• Collaborating in an interdisciplinary research team;
• Co-teaching and teaching courses at Bachelor level;
• Writing a PhD thesis within the period of appointment;
• Presenting intermediate research results for academic and non-academic audiences at workshops and conferences;
• Participating in the Research School and Faculty of Humanities PhD training programmes.

This is what we ask of you

A completed Master’s degree or Research Master’s degree in Linguistics, Education, Psychology, (Behavioral) Data Science or a related field; The skills and knowledge for processing, preparing and statistically analyzing big data; The skills and knowledge for carrying out in depth empirical studies; Excellent research skills demonstrated by a Master thesis; Enthusiasm for teaching; Strong communicative and organizational skills, a cooperative attitude and strong commitment to team science; Enthusiasm for communicating academic research to non-academic audiences; Participation in the ACLC and the national research school training program; Excellent command of English and fair knowledge of Dutch (B1-level or higher).

This is what we offer you

We offer a temporary employment contract for the period of 54 months. This is longer than the usual four-year appointment for a PhD-trajectory, because it includes additional time for teaching. Based on a full-time appointment (38 hours per week) the gross monthly salary will range from €3,059 in the first year to €3,881 in the last year. This does not include 8% holiday allowance and 8,3% year-end allowance. The first contract will be for 16 months, with an extension for the following 38 months, contingent on a positive performance evaluation within the first 12 months. As part of your contract, you will (co-)teach the equivalent of 0.2 fte. The preferred starting date is 1 January 2026.