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Departments Fail to Deliver PhD Pay Rise

Aug 07 2007 13:25

The Dark Knight

Some of the college's departments have failed to deliver the pay rise to PhD students on time.

PhD students in some departments are underpaid by about this much...

The pay rise for PhD students agreed in January has failed to materialise in some departments, despite them having a full six months to get organised.

Those in Maths seem particularly hard done by, as they were being short-changed by as much as £2,000 a year by their department, having one of the worst levels of postgraduate pay in the college. Computing - which was underpaying by £1,100, a full month's stipend - has also failed to deliver the increase, but promises that the relevant paperwork will be completed this month.

Civil Engineering and Physics appear to be more organised, with their students receiving the full £14,300 stipulated by the EPSRC.

Live! has no data from other departments at the moment, but we are keen to hear from any postgraduate researchers with information. The lack of a pay rise comes at a particularly bad time for the union to respond, with no GSA chair to co-ordinate matters, the ICU President away on jury service and the new Deputy President (Education & Welfare) at NUS training for the rest of the week.

The increase was agreed after lobbying from ICU at the start of 2007, when it became apparent that PhD stipends in many departments fell short of the amounts recommended by the research councils. The EPSRC recommends £14,300 per year, however not all of this money was reaching students - it transpired that many departments were offering less money per person, but bringing in more students. The pay increase was not back-dated, meaning many students have effectively had thousands of pounds taken from their pockets by College.

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Discussion about “Departments Fail to Deliver PhD Pay Rise”

The comments below are unmoderated submissions by Live! readers. The Editor accepts no liability for their content, nor for any offence caused by them. Any complaints should be directed to the Editor.

1. Stolen?

Aug 07 2007 14:57

PhD students were aware of their funding levels when they accepted their position. It might not be fair, but it's not stealing.

Tabloid tactics help no one. You should be concentrating on the problem of the newly agreed stipends apparently not being received, not making silly remarks like that.

2. engineer

Aug 07 2007 15:30

Certainly not stolen. However, money is given to the college so students can receive 14000 per year. They receive 2000 less than that, the college takes the difference.

Sounds like embezzlement...

"Misappropriation or misapplication of money or property entrusted to one's care, custody, or control."

3. Ashley Brown

Aug 07 2007 15:50

Except that it isn't actually misappropriation. The EPSRC sets a minimum level, which for 06/07 was ?12,300. Application of London Weighting is at the discretion of the owner of the pot of money - this is why Maths were only paying the minimum and there was a lot of variation. They are "free to switch funding to other areas of related expenditure, such as consumables, travel, conferences, external training courses and career guidance".

However, a number of people I've spoken to have described it as "theft", because they were told that their bursary offer was *higher* than normal. It turns out it was higher than the base level, but lower than the weighted minimum.

4. query

Aug 07 2007 16:35

Couldn't the ICT president got out of jury service? Aren't there opt-outs for such an important post?

5. query

Aug 07 2007 16:37

sorry - ICU not ICT

6. Reasonably Remunerated Realist

Aug 07 2007 19:34

Ideally, all PhD students would be paid well. But the Maths department seems to have realised that there are enough keen students eager to work with their prospective supervisors that they will put up with the deprivation. Very clever.

7. Simon

Aug 07 2007 19:44

Probably a bit hard to explain to people how there could be a major issue outside of term time, as most people seem to thing Uni's just STOP after the end of term. Like a lot of students. Bit of a tough break, but hard to do anything about.

I'm pretty p***ed, i was in RWD when we strongly debated this issue, and at the forum where we decided that this should be the major talking point for the Sabs to take to College, and was very happy when things seemed to be moving so fast. For some departments to be dragging their feet is deplorable, though credit to those that pulled their thumbs out and did something about it (i know a physicist mate that will be pretty happy about that).

Having lived with PhDs for two years at Clayponds, i am probably one of few undergrads (well, ex undergrad) who realise it is neither well paid, or easy, to be a PhD student, let alone in London.

Now if only the GSA farce had been averted, there would have at least been somebody around to do some immediate whip cracking.

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