Scholarship PhDs: ‘UMCG shouldn’t have passed the buck’

The MD/PhDs who work at the UMCG have gone to court. They believe that the UMCG was wrong in saying the RUG was responsible for dealing with their demands to be treated equal to employed PhD candidates.

22 January om 9:57 uur.
Laatst gewijzigd op 22 November 2020
om 16:18 uur.

January 22 at 9:57 AM.
Last modified on November 22, 2020
at 16:18 PM.

Door Christien Boomsma

22 January om 9:57 uur.
Laatst gewijzigd op 22 November 2020
om 16:18 uur.

By Christien Boomsma

January 22 at 9:57 AM.
Last modified on November 22, 2020
at 16:18 PM.

A group of 58 MD/PhDs – PhD students in a special programme who are both getting a degree and studying to be a medical doctor – asked to be paid equal to employed PhD candidates in January of 2019. After their demands were rejected and the PhDs appealed, the UMCG waited until December to respond. At that point, the organisation said that it had never been qualified to give a response to the demands. The scholarship PhDs had to go to the RUG.

The scholarship PhDs are not satisfied with this answer, however. ‘We have reason to believe that the UMCG is in fact in a position to come to a legal agreement with the MD/PhDs’, says lawyer Dino Jongsma, who submitted the appeal to the Rechtbank Noord-Nederland last Thursday.

It could be a while before there’s a ruling. ‘I have asked for an accelerated procedure’, says Jongsma. ‘I hope the court agrees. There will also be a court hearing.’

In the meantime, the scholarship PhDs are also still waiting for a response from the RUG.

Dutch