LOT Schools – General Information

1. Programme

The curriculum is put together by the curriculum committee in collaboration with the organising institute. The LOT schools offer two types of courses: 1. RM1 courses, which are specifically designed for first-year Research Master (RM1) students, and 2. Regular courses meant for second-year Research Master (RM2) students and PhD students. The RM1 courses involve more homework and assignments. See LOT Schools – Types of Training for more information, also on the option of writing a paper.

During their studies and over the course of two years, all Research Master’s students at an Arts or Humanities Faculty of a Dutch university must follow courses worth at least 10 EC at one of the National Research Schools. Students who wish to obtain all 10 ECTS from LOT, typically do so by taking a one-week Winter school with RM1 courses and a two-week school with regular courses. See LOT Schools – Credit Assignment for more information.

2. For whom

The LOT schools are intended for both Research Master students and PhD students. Research Master students must be affiliated with one of the institutes that participate in LOT. All PhD students are welcome to take part in the LOT schools, both national and international.

During the Winter schools, LOT provides RM1 courses that are aimed specifically at students who started their study in the autumn preceding the Winter School (RM1 students). Although intended for RM1 students, these courses are also open to other students and PhD candidates if there is sufficient room.

During both the Summer and Winter schools, LOT provides Regular courses. Regular courses are open only to RM2 and PhD students. RM2 students are students who have completed the second semester of the RM programme. (This includes the students who are nearing the end of the second semester of the first year of the RM programme.) RM2 students from certain universities may be allowed to write a 2-EC paper about one of the courses they completed.

Read more about the different types of training here.

3. Poster presentation

Please consider the possibility to practice your conference skills by giving a poster presentation in the week that you attend. Use this opportunity to practice presenting your research. Either make a new poster about your current or upcoming research project, or recycle one of your conference posters and let your fellow LOT students know what you’re working on. This is a great opportunity to receive feedback on your methodology, theory and/or results, as well as to find collaborators for your research. LOT prints your poster for free.

4. Costs

Admission is free for those PhD and RM students who are officially affiliated with one of the Dutch institutes that participate in LOT. Please check with your own institute first before signing up for the LOT school to verify that your LOT school fees have been paid for.

Non-LOT PhD students and postdoc researchers pay a tuition fee of 60 euros per course (accommodation not included, see below).

Non-LOT RM students cannot enroll in the school (except for RM students of the LOT partner institutes Leuven, Antwerpen and Brussels).

5. Lodging

All students have to organise their own accommodation. Advice on lodging possibilities can be found in the description of a specific school. If you are a LOT-affiliated student, you can get (part of) your accommodation costs reimbursed. Please see below for more information on how to claim your costs.

6. Dinner

On Thursday of each of the two weeks there is a school dinner that is free of charge. You are asked to register beforehand in the same form as your registration for the courses.

7. Payment

Instructions on how to pay the LOT school fees are given in the online registration form. Payments can be made via iDEAL (for holders of a Dutch bank account) or via Creditcard and PayPal. You will receive a confirmation by email of your registration and payment.

8. Reimbursement of travel and accommodation costs

Travel costs

RM and PhD students affiliated with a Dutch LOT institute – apart from when your home institute is hosting the school – can apply for reimbursement of travel costs with LOT within 8 weeks after the school. The maximum amount that LOT will reimburse is five second-class return tickets per week, from the city where your institute is located (i.e. regardless of your residence) to the city where the LOT school is held. If students live/are staying closer to where the LOT school is held, LOT will cover the travel costs of the shorter trips. If possible, students are advised to get a group ticket from the NS website when travelling together during off-peak hours.
In principle, LOT only covers the cost of travelling by public transport.

Accommodation costs

RM and PhD students affiliated with a LOT institute that is located more than 1,5 hours of travel by train from the institute where the school is held can also apply for compensation of accommodation costs with LOT within 8 weeks after the school to a maximum of 240 euros per week of participation (i.e., max. 480 euros for two weeks).

When booking accommodations as a group, LOT requires the following from each member of the group: a booking receipt for the accommodation, proof of your contribution to the group booking, and a small overview of how much each member of the group has contributed. This will make it easier for us to process your reimbursement claims.

Participants from our Belgian partner institutes cannot apply for reimbursement of travel or accommodation costs.

How to claim your costs

You can claim your costs by filling in the expense claim form. Use the following information on the form:

• The cost centre or WBS-element: R.2026.0024.02
• Name contact: Tessa Arneri
• Phone contact: 06-48534693
• Please make sure you do not enter an amount that is higher than 240 euros per week for the accommodation costs. If you enter a higher amount, you will be asked to resubmit the claim. Please use one expense claim form and one currency.
• In order to submit the expense claim form, proof of payment is required (i.e. a reservation or a booking confirmation does not suffice).  If you booked your accommodation with a group and one person paid, make sure that you have proof of paying them back (i.e. a bank statement).
• If you used an anonymous OV chip card for your travels, please use the following link to download a PDF with the relevant travel history of your card: Travel history anonymous card – OV-Chipkaart.nl.
• If you used a personal OV chipcard, please log into My OV-chip or Mijn NS and download an overview of your travel history there.
• If you only have paper tickets, please scan them and add the scanned tickets to the form.  Be sure to keep the original tickets until the amount has been transferred to your bank account.

Please use one expense claim form and one currency.

If you apply for reimbursement later than 8 weeks after the school, LOT cannot reimburse your costs.

9. Cancellation policy

If you need to cancel your registration (via lot@uva.nl), the following rules apply:

Cancellation of participation

Participation can be cancelled up to 14 days before the first day of the school by emailing to lot@uva.nl. If you cancel any later, and you are a PhD or RM student at a LOT institute, you will get an invoice for the administration costs (25 euros per course). Furthermore, if you sign up for a course, but do not show up or only show up for the first class, you will also get an invoice for the administration costs (25 euros per course).

If you are a PhD student at an institute that is not affiliated with LOT, and you cancel after the cancellation deadline, LOT will refund half of the participation fee.

Cancellation of participation in LOT dinner

If you have already paid for your dinner, but it turns out that you cannot make it, please inform the local organisation.

Cancellation of a LOT course

If LOT is forced to cancel a course – e.g. due to a teacher’s illness – LOT will offer the participants of the cancelled course a place in another course in the same week. Note that these courses may focus on a different sub-discipline than the cancelled course.

10. Additional needs and accessibility

LOT strives to make the LOT summer and winter schools accessible to all RM students and PhD candidates who are eligible to join our programme. It is therefore of utmost importance that we are made aware of any additional needs well before the start of the school, so that we have the time to organize proper assistance for our participants. Please make sure to contact us as soon as possible if you require any such assistance that needs to be organised by LOT (e.g. a sign language interpreter).

11. Certificates

Certificates will be sent to you by email within 8 weeks after the end of the school for regular courses and by 12 weeks after the end of the course for RM1-courses. For more information about LOT credits, please visit this page. More information on LOT papers can be found here.

12. Further information

Please contact your local PhD or Research Master coordinator for further information. Your local coordinator can help you decide on a schedule and has the local guidelines for papers, which are different for each university.

We also direct you to our FAQ for answers to your questions.