Some people undertaking their PhD may be considering starting their family. Being in the Netherlands, there are many child support benefits in employed and taking leave.
From the Graduate School, we have received the following information regarding the situation:
PhD Scholarship students and PhD students with a top-up scholarship from UG/UMCG have exactly the same rights to maternity/paternity leave and prolongation of their scholarship in case of parenthood as employed PhD students. All the details about maternity leave are on https://www.rug.nl/education/phd-programmes/phd-scholarship-programme/conditions-application/overview-conditions-phd-students-ug-en.pdf. For mothers the period is four months - they submit a request to the PhD Scholarship Desk. This means the scholarship payments will continue and be extended by four months. The paternity leave is not yet listed on the website yet (will do so shortly) but the period of paid leave is five weeks for fathers and it has to be taken during the first six months after the child's birth. The same administrative steps have to be taken: they submit a request to the PhD Scholarship Desk; scholarship payments will continue and be extended by 5 weeks.
So rest assured, both parents will be able to receive parental leave and be compensated.
You can read more about the changes in law here
GSSE PhD Council
