Many PhD students on a scholarship receive less than the 1564 euros a month stipulated by the IND. Photo Shutterstock As of this year, WUR has strictly applied the IND income standard. This standard is the minimum monthly sum required to qualify for a residence permit from the IND. At present, the standard is set at 1564 euros per month. The Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC) is over 200 euros short of this norm and has remained constant at 1350 per month for years.
The fact that their scholarship was augmented through other funds (sometimes only in theory), enabled CSC-funded PhD candidates to come to the Netherlands regardless of their sub-standard income. In practice, however, many students still have to make do with the 1350 euros they receive through the CSC. WUR’s demands now put a stop to this situation.
Research programmes
This does not mean that Chinese PhD candidates will no longer enrol in Wageningen, says Dean of Research Wouter Hendriks. WUR has two long-term research programmes with the Chinese Agricultural University (CAU) and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), which can serve to augment the scholarships.
However, many PhD candidates on a scholarship do not fall within these two programmes. How they may be affected is unclear. According to Hendriks, it is still too early to see the effects of the new income standard. There were approximately 400 Chinese PhD students at WUR last year, some 17 per cent of the total number of PhDs. One in four international PhD candidates is Chinese.
Support
The executive board decided last year to temporarily support PhD students on a scholarship. This decision applies to those that started their trajectory before the beginning of this year. According to a policy official of the Corporate Strategy & Accounts, 298 PhD students benefit from this decision, which costs WUR an estimated 1.5 to 2 million euros.