PhD students increasingly pay for their research themselves
The eighteen thousand PhD students who are not employed by a university often live below the subsistence level. “It is on the verge of exploitation.”
Image: Wim Stevenhagen
Taichi Ochi is doing PhD research into personalizing depression medication. In April he hopes to defend his thesis in the auditorium of the University of Groningen RUG. Ochi ended up in Groningen by chance. He was born in Peru, grew up in the US, studied in England and came to the Netherlands in 2016. He heard from a colleague at the Leiden biotechnology company where he worked that there were opportunities in Groningen to obtain a PhD in his field.
He was given a PhD position, but only found out that it was not a paid job when he wanted to move to Groningen. “When I wanted to apply for a relocation allowance, I discovered that I would not become an employee with a salary, but a PhD student with a scholarship.”
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Ochi is one of the fifteen hundred participants in the controversial experiment with scholarship PhDs that started in 2016. Trade unions and PhD candidates were already anticipating this. In their view, PhD research is work that should be paid in return. With the exception of the RUG, universities therefore declined to participate. The Groningen university persevered, because scholarship PhD students are cheaper than employees. As a result, more people can do PhD research with the same amount of money.
Ochi receives a scholarship of approximately 2000 euros per month, which is comparable to the monthly salary of an employed PhD student. But he does not receive holiday pay, does not accrue a pension and does not receive an end-of-year bonus. He not only seizes the relocation allowance, but also the tablet and laptop scheme, the private bicycle scheme and the travel allowance.
Gradually, Ochi also discovered immaterial disadvantages. PhD students who are employed spend part of their working time teaching. “If scholarship PhD students want to teach, they have to do so in their spare time,” says Ochi. And we don't get paid for it. That makes it difficult for us to gain teaching experience, while you do need that experience if you aspire to an academic career.”
second rate
The unequal treatment caused a lot of unrest in Groningen. In 2019, 48 PhD students went to court. Because they do the same work as other PhD students, they demanded an employment contract. The judge ruled against them because they themselves had signed for the training program with a grant. In the same year, 239 student PhD students signed a petition demanding an immediate stop to the experiment and the possibility to complete their PhD program as an employee. They had the support of trade unions, student organizations and PhD representatives, but received no response from the university board.
Image: Wim Stevenhagen
Delivering more PhDs was the aim of the experiment, and Groningen succeeded. Nevertheless, Minister Robbert Dijkgraaf decided last summer not to enshrine student PhD students in law after the trial had ended in 2024. The final evaluation, carried out by research agency ResearchNed, showed that the experiment has caused discord while there is no convincing added value. In his administrative response, Dijkgraaf wrote: 'The support for PhD education is very fragile and continuing it does not fit with my aim for more peace and space in the science system and a good position for all researchers.'
Taichi Ochi thinks it's a good decision. In 2021 he founded a party to give PhD students a voice and immediately won a seat in the University Council. “Groningen has been able to take on more PhD students, more research has been done and that is great. But a dichotomy has emerged, the PhD students feel second-rate.” Trade unions and PhD representatives cheered. 'PhD is work,' tweeted Promovendi Netwerk Nederland (PNN) happily. 'We endorse the importance of more uniformity and better preconditions for all PhD candidates.'
Side jobs
Perhaps they cheered too soon. Figures released last year by the umbrella organization Universities of the Netherlands show that half of all 37 PhD students in the Netherlands are not on the payroll. More than six thousand researchers work outside the university and obtain their doctorate at the expense of their boss, nearly 5.900 external PhD students support themselves and 4.200 international PhD students bring a grant from their own country.
Some of the free PhD students have a well-paid job or a generous grant “but we are getting signals that a growing number are living below the subsistence level,” says Charlotte de Blecourt, PNN director of employment conditions. It is difficult to get an idea of the numbers because unpaid PhD students are not always properly registered. “They are in a very vulnerable position,” says De Blecourt. “Sometimes they don't even have an agreement. Everything is arranged in the collective labor agreement for the employee-PhD candidate, nothing is arranged at all for free PhD candidates. They have no rights.”
A little more is known about foreign scholarship PhDs than about external PhDs who support themselves. From data provided by the investigative journalism platform Follow the Money asked universities last year, it appears that more than nineteen hundred PhD students with a Chinese government grant are working on a thesis. They have to live on 1350 euros a month. The scholarships awarded to PhD students from Brazil, Indonesia, Vietnam, Colombia and Mexico are often even lower.
“Scholarship PhDs often have extra jobs to make ends meet,” says PNN director Marcella Ibarra, who is a scholarship PhD herself. “They do research during the day and in the evening they work as a meal delivery driver or in the hospitality industry. That obviously does not benefit the scientific work.”
Image: Wim Stevenhagen
Ibarra is from Mexico and conducts data research into public transport and transport at VU University Amsterdam. She receives a Mexican government grant of 1090 euros per month, plus 680 euros per year for health insurance. Her grant provider also reimburses the tuition fee of 5000 euros that she has to pay annually to the VU for the PhD track. While each completed dissertation earns a university a PhD bonus of 83.000 euros. Charlotte de Blecourt is ambiguous about the premium: “It is an incentive to also complete a dissertation, but the premium is much too high and that makes it a revenue model. It pays to bring in free PhD candidates.” PhD students are often extremely motivated and driven and that is abused,” says the PNN director. “Scholarship and external PhD students are treated as volunteers, it is on the verge of exploitation.”
Volunteer abroad
Universities are also concerned about PhD students living below the poverty line, but say they don't have enough money to hire all unpaid PhD students.
That is why, just like the Groningen university, they want to be able to supplement tight foreign grants without the Tax and Customs Administration seeing the supplementary grant as income. Half of Groningen's PhD students bring a grant from their own country, and the university is increasing these grants to 2000 euros net per month.
The other universities do not want to go that far. Last year, the University of Amsterdam made an appointment with the local tax inspector. The UvA faculties are therefore allowed to top up the foreign grants tax-free up to 1500 euros per month, the Amsterdam subsistence minimum. The other universities want the Amsterdam agreement to become national policy and PNN supports their lobby.
It is a dilemma, admits Charlotte de Blecourt. By allowing additional scholarships, universities continue to provide low-cost PhD students. “But if people come here and do research for free, they should be able to live decently,” says Marcella Ibarra. “We see these additional grants as a temporary solution,” adds De Blecourt. “All PhD students should be employed and that is what we strive for, but that is a matter of patience.”
External PhD students often need ten years or more
The classic external PhD candidate is an academic with a job outside the university who works on a thesis in the evenings and on days off. They usually do not aspire to a scientific career and often take ten years or more to complete their PhD research. The classic external PhD student still exists, but there are also young graduates who do not obtain their PhD alongside a job, but finance their PhD research with part-time jobs and do want to work in science.
Such as Dirk Alkemade, who is working at Leiden University on a biographical thesis on Pieter Vreede (1750-1837). “An unknown politician,” said the historian. “There is a parking garage named after him in Tilburg, you will not find him anywhere else, even though he is the founder of democracy in the Netherlands. Vreede played a leading role in the creation of the first Dutch constitution of 1798.”
Alkemade already had an intended supervisor and his research proposal was well assessed, but he missed a PhD position funded by NWO a few times. Still, he wants to continue in science. That is why he finances his PhD with a few small grants from cultural funds, some savings, with administrative and small teaching jobs at the university and as an editorial secretary at a scientific journal.
“I deliberately chose this, although I would of course have preferred a paid PhD position. On the other hand, I'm happy to be able to do my own research. I can completely lose my ambition and enthusiasm.”
Alkemade feels supported by his promoter and colleagues. It is disturbing that there is no research budget for external PhD students. If he goes to a scientific conference abroad, he has to pay all costs himself. “The promotion premium of 83.000 euros could be offset by a few more facilities. A fund for conference attendance is the least.”
Also read: Unions demand more permanent jobs at universities
