LOT Schools – General Information

1. Programme

The topics of the courses are determined in accordance with the research topics of LOT. The curriculum is put together by the curriculum committee in collaboration with the organising institute. The LOT winter schools offer two types of courses: (A) courses specifically designed for first-year Research Master (RM) students (RM1 courses), and (B) regular courses. The RM1 courses involve more homework and assignments. The regular courses are open for everyone except RM1 students. During their studies, RM students can earn 10 ECTS credits by participating in both types of courses, typically by doing a one-week winter school with RM1 courses and a two-week school with regular courses.

2. For whom

The LOT schools are intended for both PhD and Research Master students. Regular courses are open only to second-year RM (RM2) and PhD students. RM2 students are those RM students that have already followed a year of RM education. During the Winter schools, LOT also provides courses that are aimed specifically at first-year RM (RM1) students. RM1 students are those students that started their study in the autumn preceding the Winter School. Although intended for RM1 students, RM2 and PhD students are welcome to join these courses if there is sufficient room. The Research Discussion Groups (see below) are open for PhD students only.

3. Research Discussion Groups

PhD students can register for a Research Discussion Group (RDG) in addition to the LOT courses. The main focus of a RDG is on the participants’ current research projects. The goal is to provide them with feedback to enhance their research and to prepare their work for publication. A maximum of 12 PhD students are accepted for each RDG. The lecturer decides which students are accepted.

The RDGs consist of presentations and discussions provided by the participants and regulated by the lecturer. Participants are asked to give a presentation on their own research. Topics can be: research ideas/questions, methodology, experiments, specific problems, results (if obtained), progress, etc. Please note that it is not necessary to present research that is in an advanced stage.

Registering for a RDG requires participants to submit a brief description of their research (this is part of the registration form). Please describe the main question of your PhD, your method and the questions you would like to address during the RDG.
The lecturer will select the participants on the basis of their description. The most important criterion will be whether the topic of the participants’ presentation corresponds to the research interests of the lecturer.
After registration has closed and you have been accepted into the RDG, the lecturer or LOT coordinator will contact you about your participation.

4. 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.

5. Costs

Admission is free for those PhD and RM students who are officially affiliated with one of the nine 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 200 euros for one week or 350 euros for two weeks (accommodation not included, see below). Non-LOT RM students (except for RM students of the LOT partner institutes Leuven and Gent) cannot enroll in the school.

6. Lodging

All students have to organise their own accommodation. Advice on lodging possibilities can be found in the description of a specific school.

7. Dinner

On Thursday of each of the two weeks there is a school dinner, for which a small contribution is charged (€15). You are asked to register beforehand in the same form as your registration for the courses. Your contribution for the dinner(s) is non-refundable.

8. 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.

9. Travel and accommodation costs

Travel costs

RM and PhD students affiliated with a LOT institute can apply for reimbursement of travel costs with LOT within 8 weeks after the school. In principle, LOT only covers the cost of travelling by public transport. 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 (e.g., 30 euros one-way for 4 students).
Please note that LOT does not reimburse the costs of local travelling within the city (bus, etc.).

Accommodation costs

RM and PhD students affiliated with a LOT institute that is located more than 1,5 hours travel from the institute where the school is held can also apply for reimbursement of accommodation costs with LOT within 8 weeks after the school to a maximum of 100 euros per week of participation (i.e., max. 200 euros for two weeks).

N.B. For the LOT Winter School 2020 in Tilburg, only participants from the University of Groningen, Leiden University, University of Amsterdam and VU Amsterdam can apply for reimbursement of accommodation costs.

Participants from UGent and KU Leuven cannot apply for reimbursement of travel or accommodation costs.

How to claim your costs

In order to claim your costs from LOT, please fill in the expense claim form. The cost centre or WBS-element is R.2026.0024.02; name contact: Janacy van Duijn Genet; phone contact: 020-5252461. Please make sure that you use only one currency. Please note that proof of payment is required. If you have a pdf overview of your travel and/or accommodation costs, you can add this to the form digitally. If you only have paper tickets, please scan them and add the scan to the form. Be sure to keep the original tickets until the amount has been transferred to your bank account. If you apply for reimbursement later than 8 weeks after the school, LOT cannot reimburse your costs.

10. Credit assignment

RM1 courses

RM1 courses are aimed specifically at RM1 students. If you are not an RM1 student, and you want to participate in an RM1 course, see below. Most RM1 classes have a limited number of participants. Registration is on a first come, first serve basis. Students can earn 5 ECTS credits by participating in two RM1 courses. LOT will send each student a certificate for each RM1 course that has been completed for 2.5 EC each. In order to earn this certificate, the student needs to:

1. do the required preparations for the course
2. participate in all five sessions of the course (10 hours)
3. do the homework assignments during that week (10 hours)
4. complete the final assignment after the course (1+4=50 hours).

Evaluation will be on a pass/fail basis. There are no repair exams for students who failed the class. They will have to make up for missed credits by participating in another class in another LOT school.

Procedure: teachers will get the list of registered students when registration closes. At that point (approximately four weeks before the start of the school), they will send the preparatory assignment to the students via email. Students hand in this assignment on day 1 of the course. The course assistants keep track of submission of the preparatory assignment. During the week, teachers provide the students with homework assignments. Teachers check/discuss these in class. The course assistants keep track of attendance. On Friday, the teacher distributes the final assignment. The deadline for handing in the final assignment by the student is four weeks after the end of the class. Students send their assignments directly to the teacher. Teachers then have two weeks to grade the final assignment. Teachers send their evaluations to LOT. At most 8 weeks after the end of the class, the students who passed will receive their LOT certificate from the LOT office. The credits are also collected at the institutional level, and sent to the contact person for the RM Linguistics program at each university. The credits are to be signed off by the student’s home university towards the completion of the MA degree.

The RM1 courses are offered in Week 1 of the LOT winter school. Participants can sign up for a maximum of two RM1 courses per school.

For RM2 students and PhD students participating in RM1 courses
Most RM1 classes have a limited number of participants. First-year students have priority for these courses, but second year RM students and PhD students can follow them as well. Registration for these courses through the LOT website is not possible for RM2/PhD students. They should email the LOT coordinator to be put on the waiting list (lot@uva.nl). When registration closes, LOT will inform them whether they can be placed.

Please note: If RM2 students/PhD students participate in RM1 courses, they should follow the rules outlined above for RM1 students in order to earn a 2.5 ECTS certificate. It is not possible to take the RM1 courses as a regular course (see below). Participants who do not submit the preparatory assignment, or the homework assigned during the week of the LOT school can be refused entrance to the class, and will not receive credits.

Regular courses

Regular courses are aimed specifically at PhD and RM2 students. LOT and the institutes participating in LOT have agreed that RM2 students can earn 5 EC for participation in the LOT school. In order to receive these 5 EC, the student must meet the following requirements:

• The student should attend three (regular) LOT school courses over a period of two weeks.
• The student should be present at all (normally five) sessions. Course assistants keep track of attendance. Before the school starts, the student should complete the readings for the first two courses. This preparation will take about one week per course. Students receive a LOT certificate of 1 EC for each class they attend and have prepared for; for three classes this amounts to 3 ECTS.
• The student writes a paper about the topic of one of the regular LOT-courses for 2 EC. See the next paragraph for more information about this paper.

Paper

In order to receive 2 extra ECTS credits for your participation during a LOT school, a student can write a paper for a regular course. Papers can only be marked by a LOT affiliated teacher (that is, a teacher from one of the LOT institutes). Not all students are allowed to write a paper via LOT, and the requirements for the papers differ per university. Therefore, please direct questions regarding these papers to your local coordinator.

If a student is allowed to write a paper via LOT, the student has to contact the teacher of the course during the LOT school to discuss the content and set-up of the paper. The paper has a minimum length of 10 pages. For further requirements, ask your local RM coordinator.

The deadline for submitting a paper is set at 4 weeks after the end of the LOT school. Papers must be sent directly to the marking (LOT-affiliated) teacher. The teacher then has 2 weeks to assess the work, and informs the LOT office of the outcome (pass/fail). If the paper fails, there is no possibility for the student to revise and resubmit. If the paper passes, the LOT office sends a certificate for 2 EC to the student’s RM coordinator.

11. 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). 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

Payment for the LOT dinner(s) is non-refundable.

If you have already paid for your dinner, but it turns out that you cannot make it, consider finding someone else who is willing to take your place (and  pay for it) via the local Facebook group.

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. If a participant does not accept the offer to take a different course, LOT will not refund the participation fee.

12. Certificates

Certificates will be sent to you by email within 8 weeks after the end of the school.

13. Reading and references

The reading materials for each of the courses can be found via the course schedule (click on the course title). You have to get hold of the reading materials yourself via your university library, Google Scholar, etc.

14. 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.