Foreign PhD candidates deserve protection

Dutch PhD candidates often face unacceptable employment conditions, and the situation is often even worse for PhD candidates from abroad. PNN proposes better protection for these sandwich PhD candidates.

Sandwich PhD candidates, also known as joint PhDs , primarily work in their home country and spend part of their PhD program in the Netherlands. They often spend the first nine months in a training program here and develop their research proposal. For the next two and a half years, they conduct research in their home country under the supervision of a local supervisor. In the meantime, they maintain regular contact with their Dutch supervisor to monitor their progress. After this period, they return to the Dutch university for nine months to complete their dissertation.

Sandwich PhDs have been around in the Netherlands since the 1990s. Wageningen University & Research is considered a pioneer and major customer. Many sandwich PhD candidates come from countries in Central and South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia and are affiliated with a scientific institute or university there.

Development cooperation

The sandwich construction offers students from less developed countries access to the supposedly high level of universities in the Netherlands and other Western European countries, while maintaining ties to their home country. It is therefore sometimes considered development cooperation.

A second reason for the sandwich structure is less often mentioned: cost savings. Due to shared ownership with the home institution, the Dutch university doesn't bear the majority of the costs. The university only provides a grant of approximately €60,000, which is exclusively available to students from outside the Netherlands.

The grant covers the salary costs for two nine-month appointments in the Netherlands, plus the costs of visas, travel, relocation, study materials, supervision in the home country, and use of university facilities. In turn, the university is entitled to receive the same amount from the Ministry of Education for each successful PhD candidate as it does for employed PhD candidates. The current amount a university receives per PhD is over €80,000 .

Contributing to local knowledge development and cost savings: it sounds too good to be true. And it is: in the end, the sandwich PhD candidate often finds himself between a rock and a hard place.

Fine

Sandwich PhD candidates often encounter problems in their home countries that are difficult to understand from the Netherlands. For example, the grant provided by their home university may not be enough to cover their living expenses. Sandwich PhD candidates can also face numerous additional responsibilities in their home countries. They then have to conduct their research in their spare time, resulting in delays. One sandwich PhD candidate recounted that upon returning to her home country, her salary was halved, she was told to continue her regular duties, and she had to conduct her research in her own time. Furthermore, her contract stipulated that she had to remain at the same institution for ten years after obtaining her PhD, otherwise she risked a fine.

Problems

In the Netherlands, sandwich PhD candidates also often encounter problems. Their grants are far below the salaries of employed PhD candidates, and their legal status is often unclear: are they an employee, a visiting researcher, or a student? This makes many matters difficult for them to arrange. Without a contract, for example, it's difficult to find housing, especially for short periods. Leave and childcare allowances must be arranged individually, because sandwich PhD candidates are not employees and there are no clear leave regulations. This group is therefore at the mercy of the university.

Education

Teaching is also a complex issue, with circumstances varying significantly from case to case. Some sandwich PhD candidates are denied the opportunity to teach, while others are required to teach excessive hours. This is often unpaid because they don't have a university contract. They can't refuse, as their supervisors present teaching as a take-it-or-leave-it arrangement.

The extra tasks significantly increase the time pressure on sandwich PhD candidates, leaving them little time to stand up for their rights. They also fall between the cracks when it comes to advocacy: unions can offer little support to this group as long as they are not formally employed.

Sandwich PhD candidates are appointed with good intentions, but the arrangement shouldn't be at their own expense. If we fund and facilitate programs that lead to exploitation, then we are part of the problem. Do Dutch universities want to be involved in this?

Code of Conduct

The Dutch PhD Network (PNN) is not advocating for the abolition of the sandwich structure, but rather for its ethically responsible continuation. Supervisors at Dutch universities must be fully aware of the terms and conditions under which their PhD students are affiliated with their home institute. This requires open communication with the PhD students and their home institute supervisors.

It would be a major step forward if graduate schools monitored the home institution's employment conditions and incorporated them into their recruitment policies. A code of conduct for PhD candidate recruitment would provide supervisors with a framework for discussing employment conditions with their home institution.

Finally, Dutch universities must take responsibility for their PhD candidates throughout the entire PhD program, not just during their stay in the Netherlands. Working conditions in the home country are an integral part of the process. Where necessary, universities must take steps to support and protect PhD candidates.

This article was published in an edited version in Onderwijsblad no. 5 (2020). PNN thanks the Wageningen PhD Council for providing input and feedback on earlier versions.