Postdoc IDEE project on 'The Transition from Secondary Education to Higher Education'

Come and innovate TU Delft education with your postdoctoral research

Job description

At the TU Delft, we are proud to welcome thousands of students every year within our engineering education. While the students’ transition from high school to our university is an exciting milestone, it also presents significant academic, social, and personal challenges. Our team is interested in how our university supports students during this critical period best, and what successful transitioning actually embodies? In this postdoctoral project, you will investigate student success from an integrated perspective, considering study progress, well-being, and competency development as interconnected actors. Through design-based research, you will develop, implement, and evaluate innovative approaches that help students thrive during their transition to higher education.

The TU Delft Teaching Academy has recognized student transition as a key theme within the Initiative on Innovation in Delft Engineering Education (IDEE). IDEE is a cross-faculty program for innovations and research in engineering education at TU Delft. This project seeks to identify factors that contribute to a successful transition and explore evidence-based practices that support it.

As a postdoctoral researcher, you will focus on one or more of the following:

- Conceptualize what a ‘successful transition’ to higher education entails.

- Identify key factors influencing student success.

- Analyze and evaluate evidence-based practices that support student transition.

- Design and evaluate new practices that support student transition.

You will work as part of the IDEE team on transition, which consists of 20 members from all faculties, as well as educational services at the TU Delft. The supervision team will consist of three staff members. You will be working in a dynamic team with scientific and educational staff, another postdoc and a PhD candidate for this project, supported by the TU Delft Teaching Academy. The Teaching Academy is the network for and by lecturers of TU Delft with the mission to collaboratively enhance engineering education and drive education innovations across faculty boundaries.

While the chosen candidate will work in the IDEE team on transition, they will be appointed to the section Science and Engineering Education (SEEd), which is part of the department Imaging Physics at the Faculty of Applied Sciences, in the same section as one of the supervisors Dr. Anna Hotze. This will create the opportunity to discuss your research with SEEd colleagues and exchange ideas on science and engineering education. The Science & Engineering Education (SEEd) section is an academic group that conducts education, research and outreach in the field of STEM education. The section SEEd investigates science and engineering education across primary, secondary and tertiary levels with a focus on pedagogical approaches of monodisciplinary science subjects and more interdisciplinary forms of teaching and learning.

Job requirements

We are looking for an organized and motivated candidate with:

- A PhD degree, in one of the social sciences such as Educational Studies or Cognitive Psychology, with a strong interest in engineering and engineering education.

- Experience with educational design based research is a plus.

- Skills to organize the research work in consultation with a multidisciplinary team; ability to work through ambiguities, inconsistencies, and uncertainties that come when interacting with multiple stakeholders with different interests and values.

- Acquaintance with the secondary and higher educational system, with interest in the Dutch system, is a plus.

TU Delft (Delft University of Technology)

Working at TU Delft means contributing to solutions that really make a difference.

For over 180 years, we have been training engineers who make an impact worldwide in companies, government bodies, or as entrepreneurs. Our alumni turn knowledge into concrete solutions for the challenges of today and tomorrow. These challenges are changing rapidly. That is why we focus on themes such as energy, climate, digitalisation, artificial intelligence (AI), and smart mobility every day. Our education and research are directly aligned with what society needs now and in the future.

At TU Delft, our people make the difference. With their knowledge and curiosity, our staff provide a high-quality education and conduct pioneering research that extends beyond the campus. You will have the opportunity to take the initiative, work with others, and grow as a professional. Working at TU Delft means join an international community of professionals and students. Together, we create knowledge, innovations, and solutions that help move the world forward.

Faculty Applied Sciences

With more than 1,100 employees, including 150 pioneering principal investigators, as well as a population of about 3,600 passionate students, the Faculty of Applied Sciences is an inspiring scientific ecosystem. Focusing on key enabling technologies, such as quantum- and nanotechnology, photonics, biotechnology, synthetic biology and materials for energy storage and conversion, our faculty aims to provide solutions to important problems of the 21st century. To that end, we educate innovative students in broad Bachelor's and specialist Master's programmes with a strong research component. Our scientists conduct ground-breaking fundamental and applied research in the fields of Life and Health Science & Technology, Nanoscience, Chemical Engineering, Radiation Science & Technology, and Engineering Physics. We are also training the next generation of high school teachers.

Click  here to go to the website of the Faculty of Applied Sciences.

Conditions of employment

- Duration of contract is 1 year. Temporarily with a posibility for extension.

- A job of 36-40 hours per week.

- Salary and benefits are in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities.

- An excellent pension scheme via the ABP.

- The possibility to compile an individual employment package every year.

- Discount with health insurers on supplemental packages.

- Flexible working week.

- Every year, 232 leave hours (at 38 hours). You can also sell or buy additional leave hours via the individual choice budget.

- Plenty of opportunities for education, training and courses.

- Partially paid parental leave

- Attention for working healthy and energetically with the vitality program.

Will you need to relocate to the Netherlands for this job? TU Delft is committed to make your move as smooth as possible! The HR unit, Coming to Delft Service , offers information on their website to help you prepare your relocation. In addition, Coming to Delft Service organises events to help you settle in the Netherlands, and expand your (social) network in Delft. A Dual Career Programme is available, to support your accompanying partner with their job search in the Netherlands. .

Additional information
If you would like more information about this vacancy or the selection procedure, please contact Dr. Anna Hotze, Dr. Yukihiro Murakami or Dr. Hylkje Geertsema, via [email protected] , [email protected] or [email protected] .

Application procedure
Are you interested in this vacancy? Please apply no later than 29 November 2026 via the application button and upload the following documents:

- CV

- Motivational letter of at most 600 words.

If the applicants are selected for an interview, they will be asked to provide contact details of two referees with their consent.

You can address your application to Dr. Anna Hotze, Dr. Yukihiro Murakami and Dr. Hylkje Geertsema.

Please note:

- You can apply online. We will not process applications sent by email and/or post.

- As part of knowledge security, TU Delft conducts a risk assessment during the recruitment of personnel. We do this, among other things, to prevent the unwanted transfer of sensitive knowledge and technology. The assessment is based on information provided by the candidates themselves, such as their motivation letter and CV, and takes place at the final stages of the selection process. When the outcome of the assessment is negative, the candidate will be informed. The processing of personal data in the context of the risk assessment is carried out on the legal basis of the GDPR: performing a public task in the public interest. You can find more information about this assessment on our website about knowledge security. (https://www.tudelft.nl/over-tu-delft/strategie/kennisveiligheid)

- Please do not contact us for unsolicited services.