PhD The roles of siblings and school peers in young adults’ life-course events

Department

Faculty of Spatial Sciences

Organisation

Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, University of Groningen, V24.0433

Job description

Project Description
The PhD researcher will work in the project ‘The roles of siblings and school peers in young adults’ life-course events’, led by Principal Investigator Clara H. Mulder and funded by an Open Competition Large grant from the Dutch Science Foundation (NWO). The research team will further include a postdoc researcher, an assistant professor who will co-supervise the PhD project, and collaborators from the University of Groningen and Statistics Netherlands (CBS). In the project, we aim to identify the roles of siblings and school peers in the occurrence, timing, and outcomes of important life-course events in young adulthood. The events are leaving the parental home, residential relocations, and entry into post-secondary education and the labour market. We will investigate differentiation in sibling and school-peer roles with regard to advantage versus disadvantage, gender, migrant background, age, and time period. We will use register data covering the entire population of young adults in the Netherlands, including newly developed family and school-peer network data, and analyse these data with advanced statistical methods. The results may help combat inequality and enhance young adults’ ability to realise their potential. The envisaged role of the PhD researcher will be to work on leaving the parental home or, according to preference and expertise, residential relocations (residential mobility, internal migration). The end product will be scientific journal articles, to be combined in a PhD thesis. The PhD researcher will also write outreach articles and help organise stakeholder workshops. A contribution to teaching is expected.

Organisation
The PhD researcher will be hosted by the Faculty of Spatial Sciences (FSS), Population Research Centre, of the University of Groningen. FSS is a dynamic faculty with an open character. With approximately 100 employees and 100 PhD researchers, we focus on highly qualified education and research in the field of planning, demography and human geography. With two bachelor's degrees and seven master's programmes, the faculty offers broad training opportunities to around 1,100 students all over the world.

Requirements

We are looking for candidates with

- A Master degree in population studies, demography, human geography, economics, sociology or another relevant social science, to be completed before the starting date (around February 2025).
- Excellent study results.
- Excellent quantitative research skills; preferably experience in multivariate statistical analyses of large survey or register data sets.
- Good writing skills and fluency in written and spoken English; experience in academic writing in English; preferably mastering some Dutch or willing to learn Dutch.
- A keen interest in the topics to be investigated in the project, preferably demonstrated by previous work on similar topics.
- Strong conceptual thinking.
- Strong motivation, good communicative skills, proactive and independent work attitude.
- Strong planning skills, ability to organize own work and related activities, ability to meet deadlines.
- A great curiosity and enthusiasm for scientific research.

We warmly invite you to apply for this vacancy, if you are interested and will have completed your Master degree before the starting date (around February 2025).

Conditions of employment

Contract length: 48 months.

The appointment of the PhD researcher is at the Faculty of Spatial Sciences at the University of Groningen. The PhD researcher will be a member of the Graduate School of Spatial Sciences. The PhD researcher will get the opportunity to participate in the Faculty’s training program for PhD students and will draw up a personal training and supervision plan. The University of Groningen offers a salary of € 2,872 gross per month in the first year of the appointment, rising to € 3,670 gross per month in the fourth year of a full-time position. The conditions of employment comply with the Collective Labour Agreement for the University of Groningen. This full-time appointment as PhD researcher is temporary for four years. You will first be appointed for a period of 12 months. After a positive evaluation, the contract will be extended for the remaining part of the project.

Starting date is 1 February 2025 or a few months earlier or later in consultation with the project leader.

Job Application

You may apply for this position until 20 October 11:59pm / before 21 October 2024 Dutch local time (CEST) by means of the application form (click on "Apply" below on the advertisement on the university website). The University of Groningen strives to be a university in which students and staff are respected and feel at home, regardless of differences in background, experiences, perspectives, and identities. We believe that working on our core values of inclusion and equality are a joint responsibility and we are constructively working on creating a socially safe environment. Diversity among students and staff members enriches academic debate and contributes to the quality of our teaching and research. We therefore invite applicants from underrepresented groups in particular to apply. For more information, see also our diversity policy webpage: https://www.rug.nl/about-ug/policy-and-strategy/diversity-and-inclusion/ Our selection procedure follows the guidelines of the Recruitment code (NVP): https://www.nvp-hrnetwerk.nl/nl/sollicitatiecode and European Commission's European Code of Conduct for recruitment of researchers: https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/charter/code We provide career services for partners of new faculty members moving to Groningen. Acquisition and unsolicited marketing are not appreciated.

Additional information

For additional information, please contact:

The project proposal can be obtained from the secretaries
[email protected]

Prof Clara H. Mulder, further information about the project that cannot be derived from the proposal
[email protected]

In your application, please always include the job opening ID V24.0433

Digital application form