PhD students: “Don't let international fellowship PhDs fall through the cracks”
Dire problems of international fellowship PhDs? Nothing has changed about that yet, according to a short note Minister Dijkgraaf sent to the House of Representatives on Tuesday. The Promovendi Netwerk Nederland (PNN) is balking.
A report by the PNN last autumn stated that many of the approximately 3,800 international fellowship PhDs can barely get by in the Netherlands. Without a secondary job or extra support from their families, they struggle to make ends meet.
Scholarships (from their home country) are by no means always supplemented by the Dutch university where they work. They have a weak legal position, PNN believes, and this creates socially unsafe situations and damages their mental health.
Crossed in the mail
The House of Representatives wanted to know what the minister thought about this. This week, he gives a succinct answer: He already responded to it last December. “This letter probably crossed the letter from your House committee in the mail,” he said.
In that earlier letter, he promised to engage with universities on this group of vulnerable international PhD students. The minister is not currently adding anything to that message.
Too expensive
The PNN wants the PhD students to be employed by their institutions, but Dijkgraaf thinks that is too expensive, he wrote in December. He also cannot reassure universities in advance concerning possible additional levies from the tax authorities. After all, the latter decides “on a case-by-case basis” based on individual circumstances and always after the fact. It is not possible to implement a unanimously accepted CDA motion to draw up national tax rules for additional scholarships.
The PNN calls on all stakeholders to keep the interests of international fellowship PhD students in mind. “We must not let these PhD students fall through the cracks,” says chair Benthe van Wanrooij. “For their well-being and the quality of their research, it is important to provide them with better support during their PhD.”
On March 20th, the position of international fellowship PhDs is on the agenda of the House of Representatives.
