Achievements - Utrecht PhD Party

We are part of the University Council since september 2017. Since then, we have achieved a number of things:

University-wide quality agreements have been established and will be shared across the university in Spring 2020;
We have continously called for a reduction of the percentage of temporary workers;
A plan was put into place in January 2019 to ensure that temporary staff at least have an employment of 4yrs 0.7fte, which we closely monitor;
An online handbook is now offered online where all the rights and tasks of PhD candidates are presented;
All PhDs of Utrecht University will have a second supervisor, and a third party present during progress meetings;
PhD candidates whose research is delayed due to Covid-19 can receive an extension of their contract.

A special PhD psychologist has been hired to help struggling PhD candidates;
PhD candidates get a contract extension when they take parental leave;
Our ten recommendations on how to improve PhD well-being are now being implemented by the UU board.

Bursary PhD’s can vote in the University Council elections;
Bursary PhD’s get a stipend if they become a university or faculty council member;
A plan has been developed to ensure the participation of non-Dutch speaking council members in all UU councils;
Important documents discussed in the councils will be provided in both English and Dutch as a standard;
The housing fee for international PhD’s has been reduced from 300 to 75 euro.

The UU now has three all-gender bathrooms to accommodate a more diverse group of employees and students. This will be extended in 2020;
We initiated a policy proposal for gender quota at our university and target numbers are currently being implemented in all faculties;
We contributed and supported the Task Force against inappropriate behaviour, leading to a report and policy proposal;
We called for a plan against racism at the UU to make sure that promises made during the BLM protests are actually fulfilled.

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