"[1][2] Kickert obtained his MA in experimental physics from the University of Utrecht, and his PhD from the Eindhoven University of Technology in 1980 under supervision of Albert Hanken with the thesis, entitled "Organisation of Decision-Making.
"[3] After his graduation in Utrecht, Kickert had started his academic career as research assistant at the Queen Mary College, London University in the mid 1970s.
After his graduation in Eindhoven he was appointed lecturer at the Radboud University Nijmegen.
In 1990 he moved back to the academic world to the Erasmus University Rotterdam, where he was appointed Professor of public management.
He was scientific director of the Netherlands Institute of Government, an inter-university research school, from 2006 to 2013.