Ever since the mid-90s, universities have been trying to have doctorate-candidate employees become doctorate students, because that would mean they won’t have to pay wages and employer’s costs anymore, but only a state stipend. And that, of course, is much cheaper. But time and time again the law has blown the whistle on the academic institutions. Since doctorate candidates carry out work, they should be treated as employees. A lawsuit against the University of Groningen is still pending.

Universities urge legislators to consider the procedures abroad, where doctorate students are very common. Why should the Netherlands be so rigid on the topic? They feel there’s no harm in a more flexible doctorate system.

The government seemed to approve of the plea, and wanted to introduce the bursary system. Doctorate candidates who don’t teach should be allowed to be considered students. Yet the Council of State, the body that advises on bills, didn’t like it one bit.

“Best is cheapest”, warned the Council. Cheap doctorate candidates might well lead to a “delicate decline” of the academic level.

At the moment, it’s very appealing for foreign students to do their doctorate in the Netherlands, exactly because of the employee status they have here. Another thing to bear in mind is that many doctorate candidates teach at Bachelor programs, “including the practicums for physics, chemistry and biomedical engineering”.

A final issue concerns a possible rift. “Institutions wanting to keep brilliant doctorate candidates close will offer them employee positions, whereas less talented students may have to take the doctorate student path”, the Council predicts. “An unintentional contrast could emerge between first-rate and second-rate PhDs.”

The government is concerned about the criticism. For now, universities are allowed to experiment with doctorate candidates only, although it’s yet unknown what type of experiments that should be. “We’ll be discussing that with the ministry”, says a spokesperson of university association VSNU. He claims the universities are disappointed. “We don’t mean to do away with the doctorate candidate as an employee. Talented foreign doctorate candidates may still be offered an employee status. All we want is more flexibility.”

 “I don’t know what such an experiment should look like, either”, says Sjoerd Keulen of action group promovendus.org, which campaigns against the doctorate student. “There already are doctorate students, in Groningen for example. They could study the consequences there.”

Keulen will probably receive his doctorate from the University of Amsterdam this year. His subject: trends in political decision-making since World War II. He feels the current ideas on doctorate students don’t fit today’s trend. “In healthcare and education the focus is on the professional who knows what’s best for them. Managers are almost considered the bad guys. Apparently, that trend doesn’t apply as much to doctorate candidates. Still, we’re happy to hear the Council of State is aware of the arguments we’ve been putting forward for years.”