The Faculty of Arts caused a lot of commotion when they published two job openings for PhD candidates on a grant on the university website in January. Guess what? The vacancies are back online but on a different website. Not a problem, according to the university, which is working on setting new rules. ‘We're not about to take a red pencil to agreements made previously.’

The move raises the question whether the current situation differs to that at the time when the vacancies appeared on the Radboud website. This caused a great deal of discussion, since Radboud University normally offers PhD candidates an employment contract. However for this project, the PhD candidates were to receive a grant of 1,600 euros, roughly minimum wage, from a German foundation.

There are more of these PhD candidates on a grant to be found in Nijmegen, mostly from China and Indonesia; roughly 200 researchers who do not receive a grant from the university, but rather bring their own money with them, often received from external parties which issue grants. The university offers only accommodation, supervision and the possibility of obtaining their PhD in Nijmegen.

But for this specific project at the history department, the university did publish a vacancy for the grant. That was ‘short-sighted and stupid’, said dean of the Faculty of Arts Margot van Mulken afterwards. Following the ensuing commotion, the Executive Board had the vacancy removed from its website, declaring that Radboud University ‘does not view PhD candidates as students’. However, PhD candidates with external grants remain welcome – the university just does not wish to actively recruit them.

Not employed

For example, the vacancy of the PhD candidates with a grant by the Faculty of Arts is no longer published the university, but by the website of the research project and the foundation making the grant available. A number of scientists are wondering, also on social media, just how much difference this really makes in practice.

After all, no changes were made to the terms: the PhD candidates receive a grant of 1,600 euros and will not be employed by Radboud University. Letters of application and requests for more information must still be addressed to the assistant professor of history who applied to the foundation for the funds.

New policy

Nevertheless, Radboud University is satisfied with the current way of recruiting at present, as spokesperson Martijn Gerritsen writes in an email response: ‘We’re not about to take a red pencil to agreements made previously. You shouldn’t change the rules during the game.’
The fact is that the university is currently making new policy about ‘what should and shouldn’t be possible’ as far as external PhD candidates with a grant are concerned, Gerritsen adds. ‘We want to offer clarity about this, but it will take some time.’

One of the possibilities the university is considering is setting certain requirements for PhD candidates with an external grant. The university feels that the differences in salary and other employment conditions compared to those of PhD candidates in employment are very significant. So it is considering setting a lower limit for monthly income, for example.

Accommodation

The university also intends to look at the possibility of giving an allowance, for example in the form of a supplementary grant or subsidising accommodation. Rector Han van Krieken tells us, ‘We will also look into the possibility of reaching some agreement with the tax authorities, such as whether or not such an allowance should be taxed. Similar agreements have also been made at the Vrije Universiteit and the University of Groningen.’

At present, no-one knows what the agreements will look like, in concrete terms. The Executive Board expects that it will be several months before the policy has been completely worked out.