Foreign PhDs urged to stay during strong expansion

By Jan Petter Myklebust and Eric Beerkens. The number of doctoral candidates in the 13 Dutch universities jumped by almost 60% in the decade to 2010 and is now close to 4,000 students each year. An OECD country report on tertiary education in The Netherlands in 2008 said the proportion of foreign students at doctorate level was then 20%, with some 640 PhDs conferred. Through the ongoing internationalisation of graduate education in The Netherlands, a broad variety of different PhD trajectories have emerged. The PhD candidate as an employee of the university is the traditional model and is still widespread, especially in the hard sciences and life sciences. Increasingly, however, foreign PhD candidates come to The Netherlands to pursue the degree while being funded by their own governments. Chinese government-sponsored students and DIKTI students – lecturers funded by the Indonesian Directorate General of Higher Education – are important examples.
The PhD premium
The output-based financing in the Dutch system – through a so-called ‘PhD premium’ where universities receive around €90,000 (US$116,000) for each graduate – is an important factor contributing to the growth. Read more...