Cooperation with Chinese scholarship provider CSC valuable; increase in scholarship needed

UM is in talks with the CSC, the organisation that provides scholarships to Chinese PhD students, about continuing the cooperation. Both parties believe that this cooperation is valuable for PhD students and for the institutions. This is also evident from an evaluation of the cooperation between the CSC and UM over the past five years. To continue this cooperation, a primary condition for UM, however, is for the scholarship for PhD students to be increased. By agreement with the other Dutch universities, international scholarship PhDs should be able to count on a scholarship at least equal to the IND (Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service) standard. If the CSC can guarantee that minimum, then continuation of the cooperation from 2025 is possible. 

The current bilateral cooperation contract between UM and the CSC runs until September this year. In September 2024, the last 23 PhD students under the current contract started at UM. By January 2025, it should be clear whether the CSC can meet the condition. The CSC has indicated it is exploring that possibility very seriously. If the scholarship provider can meet the conditions, then UM and the CSC can start talks on a new cooperation agreement.  

The scholarship the CSC provides to its (Chinese) PhD students is relatively low. Too low to make ends meet in the Netherlands, especially after the price increases in the last few years: the level of scholarships has not risen with inflation. Currently, the scholarship is 263 euros per month below the minimum required to obtain a residence permit according to the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) guidelines. One of the conditions for the continuation of the cooperation is that the CSC guarantees that all its fellowship PhD students have an income at least at that level for the duration of their research at UM. The coming months will show whether the CSC will meet that condition. 

The financial condition now imposed on the CSC is in line with the guideline jointly set by the Dutch universities: from 1 January 2025, all new non-EEA scholarship PhDs must have a scholarship that at least meets the IND standard. This applies also to Chinese PhD students who obtain a PhD position at UM through the CSC but have a different scholarship. It is currently being investigated for all scholarship PhD students whether they meet the IND standard. 

The umbrella organisation of Dutch universities UNL and individual universities such as UM are also discussing with the government the possibilities for universities themselves to top up scholarship grants for PhD students until they meet the IND standard. Currently, this poses tax problems.