The tax authority and the UG have not yet reached a new agreement on the amount of future top-up grants. But scholarships PhDs who sign a contract this year need not worry.
The UG uses the top-up grants to raise the scholarships of international scholarships, to bring them in line with those of other scholarship PhD students.
During the scholarship experiment, universities had the opportunity to give PhD students a scholarship instead of a four-year employment contract. Some foreign PhDs come with their own money, which was often lower than what scholarship PhDs receive. The UG therefore supplements their funding.
Concerns
The experiment will end in September. According to Björn de Kruijf with the personnel faction of the university council, the scholarship PhDs are worried about whether they will get enough money after the experiment.
According to Hans Biemans with the UG board of directors, they have nothing to fear. Scholarship PhDs on a contract will keep the same top-up grant for the duration of their contract. However, it is unclear what happens after that.
The UG wants to continue paying out top-ups, but the amount is likely to change. The university has to reach new agreements about this with the tax authority. That is still pending.
Lawsuit
This is because a group of scholarship PhD students won a lawsuit against the UMCG earlier. They had contracts as scholarship PhDs but received less money than PhDs who were hired on an employment contract. However, the work they did was the same, they say.
They therefore demanded compensation and the court agreed with them. The UMCG appealed in cassation. A preliminary decision is expected before the summer.