Grants and Writing Resources for Utrecht University

A team of ten bachelor's and master's students from Utrecht University and UMC Utrecht won a gold medal at the 2025 iGEM competition in Paris. It was Utrecht's first iGEM entry in seven years. Their project, GutFeeling, is a modified gut bacterium that produces L-DOPA, aimed at chronic conditions such as Parkinson's disease. Closer to home, the Rector Magnificus presented the university's Student Awards to three students on 1 September 2026.

Thesis Prizes

Each year the Executive Board presents two Student Awards at the start of the academic year. The Best Master's Thesis award goes to a student nominated by the Director of Education or Research Director of a master's programme, while the Social Impact award recognizes a student or group who excelled in extracurricular or social work, and anyone inside or outside the university can make a nomination. Faculties, departments and programmes also give their own thesis awards.

The Utrecht University Fund adds the Vliegenthart Thesis Award, worth €1,500, for the best master's thesis. A separate jury picks one winner a year. The eligible field rotates among the Humanities, Life Sciences, Science, and Social and Behavioural Sciences.

Small Grants for Students

The Utrecht University Fund sets aside about €80,000 a year for student activities, handed out by its student-run committee, STUF. Individual students can apply for grants for extracurricular activities that earn no credits, such as presenting a thesis at a conference. Applicants must be Student Friends of the Fund, which costs €10 a year.

Some of the Fund's named funds serve one field. The Maartje Draak Fund travel grant pays up to €1,000 toward thesis research abroad, a conference presentation or a summer school in Celtic studies, and bachelor's, master's and PhD students can all apply. The Thijs Pollmann Reisbeurs gives four travel grants of €1,000 a year to bachelor's students in Language and Culture Studies going abroad for study.

Student Journals and Thesis Archives

Two student-run journals are listed by the Comparative Literary Studies programme. Frame, a literary studies journal published twice a year since 1984, is run by Utrecht students and alumni and prints work by graduate students alongside international scholars. Junctions, founded in 2015, is peer-reviewed, open access and the official journal of the Graduate School of Humanities. Comparative Literary Studies students regularly sit on both editorial boards.

Open-access student theses appear in the Utrecht University Student Theses Repository, which covers work by students of the university and UMC Utrecht from the past fifteen years. Students start the process by uploading through OSIRIS, as the library's Publishing your thesis page explains. Doctoral dissertations go into the Utrecht University Repository with a permanent URL. Those since mid-2020 also get a DOI.

Help With Writing

The Skills Lab offers free writing tutoring to all UU students: a 45-minute one-on-one session with a trained student tutor, held in the University Library at Utrecht Science Park or on Teams, in Dutch or English. Tutors ask questions rather than correct grammar. For bachelor's and master's thesis writers, the Skills Lab's thesis support runs a thesis kick-off, a Thesis week of working alongside other writers, a Start & stay writing day and a Keep writing week for the last stretch. University College Utrecht students reach the same help through Writing & Skills Support.

PhD candidates in the Graduate School of Life Sciences can take Academic Writing 1, taught by the Communication Skills Academy, a joint initiative of the graduate schools in the natural and life sciences. It's free for Graduate School of Life Sciences candidates. Candidates in the Graduate School of Natural Sciences have their own Academic Writing 1 for GSNS PhD Students, built on weekly e-learning modules with peer and teacher feedback.

When a paper, thesis, or dissertation is ready for a final edit, our editors can help. See our Utrecht University dissertation and thesis editing page, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.