Research institutes within the Faculty of Science and Engineering will now need to arrange a ‘hospitality agreement’ for PhD students who need to continue using laboratories and offices after their contracts have ended.
The faculty administration wants to eliminate the automatic extension of appointments for PhD students who have not completed their projects on time. Extensions will only be granted for ‘good reasons,’ such as delays due to pregnancy or illness. This policy aims to ensure that projects are better monitored and thus completed more quickly.
However, it also means that PhD students who do not finish on time will be excluded from accessing the university’s computers, buildings, and offices.
Not insured
A request for appointment as ‘Other External Personnel’ (OEP) will address the computer access issue but does not grant access to laboratories and offices.
‘People often think that our buildings are public space, but that’s not true’, said dean Joost Frenken during the faculty council meeting. ‘And if something happens, they are not insured.’ A ‘hospitality agreement’ solves that problem, he emphasised.
Additional hurdle
The faculty council was critical. ‘I understand that it’s helpful to stimulate people to get their work done in time’, said faculty council member Anouk Lubbe. ‘But I fear that this will have negative consequences.’ She worried about additional ‘administrative hurdles’.
However, the faculty administration stressed that this is the only way forward. ‘We need to make sure that everybody in the system takes the agreement seriously.’