UKRO organised a Focus Group meeting last week on including tuition fees and employing PhD students on EU grants. The objective of this meeting was to provide a forum for discussion and exchange of best practice, as well as to identify common issues.
Participants discussed a number of topics and exchanged on institutional approaches in breakout rooms including:
- how organisations include PhD student fees and other related costs in Horizon grants?
- how are PhD fee rates set at the institutions?
- how PhD fees are treated by organisations in MSCA grants in particular?
Other issues discussed included experiences with auditors on the subject, contracts and documentation used for PhD students on grants as well as challenges around PhD recruitment and visas.
What rates are used, what are institutional policies?
Some reported using staff rates for PhDs who are employed on EU grants, regardless where they join the organisation from. Other institutions waive fees and claim them as foregone income on Horizon 2020 grants. Many reported using UKRI rates or Wellcome Trust rates for the fees. There were however also examples of institutions charging international fees to their EU grants.
Many reported that additional contracts, appointment letters or annexes are used to document where fees are waived or to agree how a PhD student works on the grant, or how, for example, IP is dealt with. This is then also used at audit.
Best practices identified
- harmonised rules/approaches within an institution when it comes to how fees are charged, the types of fees used for Horizon grants
- ensuring a solid audit trail including on how fees are charged or waived
- having a separate agreement or annex to the offer letter with the PhD student that details the approach on fees
- for organisations who currently waive fees but do not claim them in Horizon grants, this might be worth exploring
Issues raised
- Some organisations reported that there were different approaches to fees used across their organisation, sometimes this is determined at department level for example. There were also examples where institutions have a common approach for Horizon grants or where different approaches are used depending on the type of Horizon grant (MSCA, ERC, collaborative projects). Sometimes organisations waive fees on Horizon grants because of the perceived complexity, including at audit.
- Where international fees have to be used there were often concerns over impact on research budget and also concerning the perception from consortia. In ITNs participants raised that there is often top-slicing by coordinators that further reduces the research and training budgets.
- Some reported that joint doctorates posed additional issues when it came to the fees.
- A particular concern over including the cost of PhDs in ERC grants was raised, and that it could be seen as making the bid look less competitive to evaluators if high fees/costs for PhD students were included. In relation to this, some remarked that they see a tendency to include post-doc over PhD students recently. This was observed not just in relation to stipends and fees but also cost and complexities around visas and the NHS surcharge.
This article provides an overview on the rules for charging PhD fees in Horizon 2020 and UKRO understands that the rules will continue in Horizon Europe.
UKRO is planning future focus group meetings and topics can be suggested to your UKRO European Advisor.