SIP Berkeley

PhD Exchange

PhD Student Exchange

 

The University of California, Berkeley and Ghent University signed an agreement to broaden and deepen the collaboration between both institutes. It allows to support short research stays for exchange or visiting PhD-students.

Read here some testimonials of students who spent exchange time at the partner university:

 

Eligibility criteria
Applicants need to be officially enrolled as PhD students at Ghent University for the entire duration of their stay at the UC Berkeley. Applications must be supported by a Ghent University and a UC Berkeley supervisor who both hold a PhD and a professorial function. Applicants need to submit their application at least 6 months before the beginning of the planned stay abroad for visa application reasons. The research stay can take place between May 2025 to end of 2025.

 

Fees
PhD students from UGent cover all costs associated with their stay in Berkeley, including but not limited to health insurance and the following fees:

  • DS-2019 visa application processing fee ($ 600)
  • VSPA (Visiting Scholar and Postdoc Affairs, https://vspa.berkeley.edu) University Services fee ($1000),
  • the Institute of European Studies (IES) Visiting Scholar administrative fee of $2,000 will be partially waived. IES waives $1,500 of its overall $2,000 administrative fee for UGent-participants accepted to IES.

Funding
Seed funding grants are available to foster the collaboration between UGent and UC Berkeley. The UGent students who are selected for this exchange can receive a grant of 2.800€ for the first month, and receive an additional 1.400€ per extra month. The maximum funded stay is 3 months.
For additional funding opportunities applicants are referred to the faculty mobility fund for researchers.

Orientation and services
At Berkeley, the Institute of European Studies will coordinate the UGent-PhD student’s visa application process. Each UGent-PhD student will be provided with their own working space at the Doe Library Graduate Services and will have access to a printer, scanner, and wifi. Exchange students from UGent will not be able to enrol in Berkeley courses and receive course credit, but they are allowed to audit classes, depending on permission by the respective instructor. PhD students from UGent will receive exchange student status during their stay at UC Berkeley.

Successful applicants will be required to provide a short report of the funded activities, within 2 months after the conclusion of the research stay.

Application form and deadline

Ghent University applications need to fill in this application form and submit it before the deadline of December 15th, 2024.

 

UC Berkeley students apply for this exchange via internal procedures. More info on this webpage.