The PhD Experience in Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

 

 

Brief description:
This article is a portion of my PhD experience in VU Amsterdam, especially that experience in relation to working with Prof. Erik de Boer on understanding of Calvin’s doctrine of God (the simplicity and the trinity of God) in the Reformation literature. Under his supervision, we are able to reconstruct the arguments for the one and only God in Calvin’s thought. Throughout the journey of research, at all phases of the dissertation writing process, until the day of the defence, it has definitely shape the concept of God when I think of God; and it also taught me a lot about the way of doing interfaith dialogue. I’ll briefly summarize what I think that PhD students might benefit from my experiences and what I learned.

 

Finding and Choosing the Right Literature:
It was an important element for me to choose a right literature that drives you on your way to answer the research question. Although I have not felt that for some time, but I do feel I’m so focused on the works when I discussed with my professor who remind me locating and analysing the works of the literature.

 

Staying On Track:

We all know that life can get busy with work schedule (both the PhD candidates and the supervisors). With this reason, I have been managed to set a specific and achievable timeframe for the research in order to keep track of the progress in my dissertation writing and combat the tendency to procrastinate. In addition, through this timeframe, I also learned to know where we stand now for my first draft of entire dissertation-manuscript. Thus, it seemed helpful to schedule a provisional arrangement for a possible date of the completion of each chapter. So both the candidates and supervisors will be able to schedule their time to accommodate this provisional date to complete the task.

 

The Passion of Determination to Finishing Your PhD:
After my “Doktorvaater” (the late Professor Henk Vroom) has passed away in the middle of my research project, I have encountered the difficulties and challenges for the transition of continued supervision by new professors. The transition process that has been greatly affected my research progress when I need to rework my thesis and methodology with new professors, and this was also the time when you question everything and feel lost, and it may seem unable to finishing a PhD. But what strokes me is their unfailing willingness that enables me to rediscovering, researching, and writing the dissertation with a heart of perseverance leading up to my dissertation defence.