(Most) WIMEK PhDs are required to have an individual Training and Supervision Plan (TSP). You will make this plan yourself, tailor-made for your personal development to become an independent researcher in your field.

You will be guided through designing the first draft of the TSP in the online part of the A1. So, make sure you register within one month after you started your PhD. The idea is to use the online assignments to make your first draft within three months after starting your PhD trajectory; upload it to the A1 online course as final assignment; and then discuss further with your supervisors. You are expected to submit your final plan that you and your supervisors have all agreed to, via Hora Finita within 6 months.

You can consult the WIMEK PhD education Program to get inspiration on the type of courses and activities you can follow. A WIMEK SENSE TSP form can be downloaded on the right side of the article. Shortly after the start of your project, WIMEK will invite you to two meetings, the first one is general about WIMEK and other useful information about your process, the second one is about your TSP. With that second invite, you will receive an annotated version of the TSP so you can have an idea of the options. 

The TSP is assessed by WIMEK on whether your courses and activities will meet the WIMEK-SENSE criteria. You can find these in the attached document 'WIMEK TSP requirements 2026'. Usually, you will also receive a few words of free advice; you can follow up on that advice; or not. That is up to you and your supervisors.

An approved WIMEK TSP is compulsory after 6 months to remain eligible for a reduced course fee for courses of Wageningen Graduate Schools (WGS) and a number of SENSE courses. The first 6 months you can already participate in courses and are eligible for the reduced fee without an approved TSP.
The approval of your TSP is also one of the conditions to be formally admitted to the Wageningen University PhD programme, unless you are an external PhD and we have agreed with your supervisors that you won't have a TSP obligation. If you think this might apply to you, please discuss this with your supervisor! 

Keep in mind that the TSP is a plan, and that you are allowed to make alterations to it when your training needs change in the course of your PhD trajectory, as long as you make sure that you meet the WIMEK-TSP requirements. You can find these here, together with a list of the underlying learning goals.

Please do not upload a new version of your TSP, after your TSP has been approved. Doing so will overwrite the former approval and causes the ‘TSP has been approved’ checkbox in the PhD checklist to go back to grey. When this happens you can not graduate until the check has been made green again by us.

 

To apply for your WIMEK/SENSE diploma (once you have fulfilled all TSP requirements at the end of your PhD), please see the instructions document on how to use the portfolio function.