[staff-physics-and-astronomy-HL-UHD-UD] CSC procedure

[Dahlberg, J.D. (Jordi)]

Dear all,

The Faculty Board has established a new procedure for accepting PhD candidates from the China Scholarship Council (CSC) (see attachment: Procedure CSC), which will enter into force retroactively from January 1st , 2026. This means in principle, CSC students are allowed. However, it comes with a list of requirements, as you can read in the attached procedure. On top, for those candidates that will physically work at ARCNL or Nikhef, extra requirements from NOW-I or the institutes themselves might be applicable. In practice, we will have to see case by case whether we can host the students. 

The Faculty Boards points out out again that PhD positions based on the CSC program come with a series of risks that cannot be fully mitigated with the new procedure:

  1. While knowledge security risk is expected to be reduced by the knowledge security check, the governmental regulations on this topic are becoming stricter, especially on dual-use and export of sensitive knowledge. In the context of the CSC program, this leads to long and complex admission and management procedures.
  2. Some colleagues report that PhD candidates who come from countries with pronounced language barriers may require much more guidance. This may represent an important factor when onboarding CSC PhD candidates. Furthermore, because of the nature of the CSC scholarships, some CSC PhD candidates may experience heavy pressure from their home country to complete their PhD trajectory in a short time, exposing them to a high level of stress.
  3. CSC PhD candidates are not employees of the VU. To avoid the risk that the court determines that a relationship of authority exists, with heavy legal consequences for the VU, the following points must be considered:


- The VU cannot request the CSC to increase the amount of the scholarship.
- The rights surrounding intellectual property produced by a CSC PhD candidate must remain with the CSC PhD candidate. Any efforts to claim intellectual property for the university will look like an employment relationship. This seems to be an unavoidable risk.
- CSC PhD candidates must have the freedom to choose the subject and the design of their research activity (within the limits of what is scientifically sound). It is not advisable to attract CSC PhD candidates to carry out research activities that have been chosen in advance by the VU.
- CSC PhD candidates have no obligations to be physically present at the VU premises; they may work everywhere they wish, at their discretion.
- CSC PhD candidates are not required to report absences (e.g., in the event of leave or illness);
- CSC PhD candidates cannot have teaching duties and cannot be involved as part of a teaching team.

It is recommended that clear agreements be made with CSC PhD candidates regarding the above. VU Legal Office has designed a contract that helps mitigate the risk factors described above (see attachment: Scholarship PhD Candidate Agreement). Before starting any collaboration with a CSC PhD candidate, please, make sure that they sign it.

  4. The granted living allowance budget that CSC PhD candidates receive is often insufficient. In practice, this leads to difficult financial situations, which are accentuated by the higher cost of living in the Amsterdam region. In the new procedure, we mitigate this risk by requiring supervisors to provide the resources necessary to align with the conditions as reported by the IND standard for researchers. Supervisors can use 2nd , 3rd , or 4th money stream to top-up the amount of the scholarship, cover research costs, and cover the training costs that might be necessary. Please let the PhD candidate sign the contract for the top-up agreement (see attachment: Top-up agreement).

In case you are interested in hosting a PhD candidate with a CSC scholarship, please reach out to me.

Best,
Jordi 
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