Scholarship PhDs: ‘UMCG shouldn’t have passed the buck’
Scholarship PhDs: ‘UMCG shouldn’t have passed the buck’
Door Christien Boomsma
By Christien Boomsma
Christien Boomsma
Christien is sinds 2016 achtergrondcoördinator bij UKrant. Ze plant de achtergrondverhalen en begeleidt de auteurs. Bij haar eigen verhalen ligt de focus op wetenschap en academisch leven. Daarnaast schrijft ze veel over onderwerpen als sociale veiligheid en maakt ze graag persoonlijke interviews. In haar vrije tijd schrijft ze jeugdboeken en geeft schrijftrainingen.A group of 58 MD/PhDs – PhD students in a special programme who are both getting a degree and studying to be a medical doctor – asked to be paid equal to employed PhD candidates in January of 2019. After their demands were rejected and the PhDs appealed, the UMCG waited until December to respond. At that point, the organisation said that it had never been qualified to give a response to the demands. The scholarship PhDs had to go to the RUG.
The scholarship PhDs are not satisfied with this answer, however. ‘We have reason to believe that the UMCG is in fact in a position to come to a legal agreement with the MD/PhDs’, says lawyer Dino Jongsma, who submitted the appeal to the Rechtbank Noord-Nederland last Thursday.
It could be a while before there’s a ruling. ‘I have asked for an accelerated procedure’, says Jongsma. ‘I hope the court agrees. There will also be a court hearing.’
In the meantime, the scholarship PhDs are also still waiting for a response from the RUG.