With the new agreement, reached last week between the unions and the board of governors, aio's at the UT are the best-paid PhD students after their colleagues in Delft.
Unions and board of governors at the University of Twente reached an agreement of principle on aio-salaries last week. PhD students will get a substantial salary raise. First-years get 3698, second-years 3732, third-years 3846 and fourth-years 4281 guilder gross each month.
The facilities package for aio's of f 35,000 will be partially abolished. New PhD students will only be reimbursed for the printing costs of their thesis (f 7,000) and the costs of a computer (with a maximum of f 3,000).
The thesis will in principle have to be digitalized at the Twente University Press. Aio%s can, after discussing this with the UT's publisher, publish their book at another publisher.
Aio's who are now in their third or fourth year keep their right to the facilities package. First- and second-year aio's can still claim the 35-thousand, but will then have to relinquish their labour market bonus.
The board of governors will, moreover, give the faculties extra money. With this money PhD students will be able to visit conferences and follow courses.
Only aio%s at the university of Delft (TUD) are paid more. This is because the TUD considers its aio's regular employees. PhD students are appointed as temporary scientific personnel. They start in salary scale 8.0. After that the university applies a conscious policy of rewards. If the researchers do their work well they go up one step ('periodiek') every year. Exceptional work is rewarded with more than one step up the salary scale ladder. In this way their salary can reach 5445 guilder gross per month.
The aio's at the TUD do not have an extra facilities package. Aio%s from Enschede earn less money than their colleagues in Delft but they get the printing costs of their thesis reimbursed and the UT pays for a computer. Together this may not cost more than ten-thousand guilder.
The Catholic University of Nijmegen (KUN) also gives its aio's a facilities package. This amounts to f 12,000 for four years. PhD students in Nijmegen at the KUN do earn a little less. This despite the fact that aio's at the science faculties get a small labour market bonus on top of their salary. A salary determined by the collective labour agreement (CAO).
Most of the universities do follow the CAO. Only the UT, the TUD, the university of Groningen (RUG) and the university of Tilburg (KUB) pay their aio's higher salaries. At a number of universities the aio's of science faculties do get a bonus.
The aio-salaries of the Free University Amsterdam (VU) and the KUN have not been set definitively. Management and unions still have to put their signature to an agreement. At the universities of Eindhoven and Wageningen salary is still being negotiated.
