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Member of the Thesis Committee
date / our reference / your letter dated / your reference
06 April 2017
e-mail / telephone / fax / enclosure(s)
Mail address of supervisor / +31 20 598 8555 / +31 20 598 8529
Subject: Thesis of…..

Dear members of the Thesis committee,

Please find enclosed the doctoral thesis of ……. with the title “”. In my opinion, the PhD candidate has achieved the final attainment levels as described in article 19 of the doctorate regulations of the Vrije Universiteit.

1.  The PhD candidate has contributed to extending the frontiers of knowledge by conducting substantial and independent research that withstands the rigors of peer review. For example: Two of the seven chapters describing empirical studies have been accepted for publication in international peer-reviewed scientific journals. In addition, one chapter has been conditionally accepted and two have been recently resubmitted after major revisions. Finally, two chapters are peer-reviewed book chapters, one published and one in press.

2.  The PhD candidate has demonstrated a systematic understanding of a substantial knowledge domain (which domain?) and is competent in the skills and methodology needed for conducting research in her particular research domain. The candidate contributed to conception and design of the experiments, collected and analyzed data for all chapters and contributed to interpretation of the data. He/She wrote all seven papers as first author.

3.  The PhD candidate has demonstrated the ability to design, develop, implement and modify a substantial research project. This is evident from the thesis.

4.  The PhD candidate is capable of critically analyzing, evaluating and synthesizing new and complex ideas. This is also evident from the thesis.

5.  The PhD candidate communicates well with colleagues and the wider scientific community about his/her specific knowledge domain. Miss/Mister……... is a well-known ……. in The Netherlands, Europe and elsewhere. He/She has given many presentations for colleagues at conferences and workshops both nationally and internationally and she has much experience in teaching within the …….domain, again, both nationally and internationally.

Based on these considerations, I would like to invite you, also on behalf of the co-supervisor(s) dr……. and dr. …… to review the thesis. You are asked to assess the quality of the thesis in relation to the terms mentioned above and to provide your motivated judgement to the chairman of the thesis committee Prof.dr. …….. via ………@vu.nl, within 30 days after receiving the manuscript. Based on your assessments, the chair of the Thesis committee will formulate a final advise to the chair of the PhD committee of the Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences of the Vrije Universiteit.

As a member of the thesis committee you will be invited to take part in the opposition during the public defense, which will be scheduled with you on a suitable date and time.

Sincerely,

Prof. dr. …….

Professor of …….

PhD Supervisor of ……..