Programme for Student Assistants in Research

Would you like to gain research experience in your own field? Would you like to know more about the way scientific research is conducted? Are you a bachelor’s student and can you take on a second programme in addition to your regular programme? Then send in your application for the Programme for Student Assistants in Research (PSO).

Incentive programme
Would you like to gain research experience in your own field? Would you like to know more about the way scientific research is conducted? Are you a bachelor’s student and can you take on a second programme in addition to your regular programme? Then send in your application for the Programme for Student Assistants in Research (PSO) using the application form below. The selection will take place on the basis of study tempo, motivation and grades.
Who may apply?
Talented ethnic minority bachelor’s students in all programmes are eligible to apply. One condition is that at least one of their parents was born in a non-Western foreign country. (See 'Summary of non-Western countries' in PDF). Applicants must have been living in the Netherlands for at least five years, and must have completed their first bachelor’s year at the start of the student assistant position. As the University aims with this programme both to interest students to do research and to encourage research tutors to scout non-native talent, applicants can be nominated both by students and research tutors.
Admission criteria
For the Programme for Student Assistants in Research, Leiden University is looking for students who are keen to gain extra experience in research and who wish to learn more about an academic career. Students will be selected on the basis of their: motivation, drive, study pace and results (average grade, but also outliers on their grade list, individual fields of interest, and developments/changes in results, e.g. grades becoming higher over time). These selection criteria will be incorporated in a standardised score form, which will be used during the selection interview. Students who are the first in their family to have gone to university (i.e. whose parents have no further education beyond high school) will be given priority in the selection.
Aim of the programme
The goal of this programme is to make scientific and scholarly research more accessible and appealing to talented ethnic minority students. At present, ethnic minority academics are under-represented, although the number of such students in all the study programmes is increasing. Students themselves often say that they do not have a clear idea of what it is like to work at our university or what steps they need to take to possibly acquire a PhD position. Determined to change this situation, Leiden University, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Free University in Amsterdam and Utrecht University have joined forces; with the aid of the European Social Fund for supporting employment, the Research Student Research Assistant Programme has been initiated. In this Programme, talented ethnic minority students will be selected for student assistant positions, and supervisors will be taught intercultural communication skills and how to spot relevant talented students.
Content of the Programme
The Student Assistant in Research Programme offers a total of 40 bachelor’s students at four different universities the opportunity to gain experience in research as a student assistant for eight hours a week, over a period of five months. You will be appointed as a student assistant in your faculty from 1 September 2010 to 1 February 2011, and will perform research work under a tutor or researcher. In addition, you will follow five courses together with all the other student assistants from the other universities:
1. Working as an academic (UU)
2. Researching skills (VU)
3. Empowerment (UU)
4. Networking skills (LEI)
5. Presentation skills (EUR).
In addition, the supervisor involved will be given the opportunity to attend a workshop about intercultural communication and expectation management concerning ethnic minority students. The programme will be concluded with a mini conference, where students will present their research to one another.
Application and selection
Students and tutors can use the application form to put forward appropriate students
· Application
Students can use the application form to apply. Students will preferably do so together with their chosen supervisor, who must also complete an online recommendation form. Students should send their grade list and CV by email to pso@ics.leidenuniv.nl, mentioning PSO and their surname in the subject line. Students who have no supervisor or recommendation yet may also apply; in the second stage, after an admissibility check, they will be asked to acquire a recommendation, for which they are allowed a period of four weeks.
Tutors and/or researchers (= supervisors) can recommend a student; their recommendation becomes complete once the student has sent in the application form, CV and list of grades.
Apply before 15 March 2010
Students and supervisors will receive a notice of acceptance before 1 May 2010.
Application form for tutors
Application form for students

· Acceptability check
After an application has been submitted, the programme co-ordinator will check whether the student is a member of the target group, whether all the questions have been answered, whether the file submitted is complete, and whether the candidate commits to attend all the courses.
A complete file should contain:
- the student’s application form (including online form)
- the student’s CV and list of grades (sent by the student by email)
- the tutor’s recommendation (including online form).
Anyone submitting an incomplete file will be requested within one week to supply the missing documents. Students who still have no recommendation will be given 30 days to obtain one. The committee will only consider complete files.

· Pre-selection
The committee members and the programme co-ordinator will use files and score forms in written form to make a pre-selection (if necessary) of candidates to be interviewed by the university committee. The committee will conduct a number of interviews that depends on the number of applications but is restricted to a maximum.

· Interview
A university committee will prepare a recommendation concerning the student assistants to be appointed. This advice is based on interviews lasting 20 to 30 minutes, where all committee members give the students a score on an assessment form; the other universities use an identical form.
· Advice to the Executive Board
The Executive Board decides which student assistants will be selected. Their guideline is to select at least one student from each faculty. This depends of course on the number of candidates each faculty puts forward; the quality of the candidate remains the prime factor.
Contact
Has reading this website or the application form left any questions unanswered? Then please contact Jantien Delwel, the programme co-ordinator PSO for Leiden University, at j.delwel@ics.leidenuniv.nl.

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· Some quotes from a student assistant
· Previous message about the Programme for Student Assistants in Research: Subsidy for appointing ethnic minority student assistants (Student news 27 October 2009)
Web Editor – 08/02/2010