2003:32 R
Rounding postgraduate studies - legal aspects
Introduction
A number of amendments in the Higher Education Ordinance came into force on 1 April 1998. These were intended, among other things, to increase the efficiency of postgraduate programmes and to offer postgraduate students greater legal security. One of the principal innovations was the requirement of guaranteed financial support before students could be enrolled on postgraduate programmes.
The aim of this report is to study whether the statutory provisions relating to financial support for postgraduate students and they ways in which they are applied by the higher education institutions provide the students with adequate legal guarantees.
The requirement of financial support for postgraduate students
The National Agency for Higher Education considers that the responsibilities of the higher education institutions for providing information about and monitoring financial support for postgraduate students require clarification. Higher education institutions are responsible for preventing the enrolment of postgraduate students who lack funding and for ensuring that the guarantees provided are assessed appropriately. In addition it is the responsibility of the faculty boards to monitor individual syllabuses and make any changes that may be needed. The National Agency for Higher Education proposes that the provisions of Section 8 of the Higher Education Ordinance on the contents of individual syllabuses should be extended to include requirements on how financial support is to be planned.
It is not clear how far an institution's responsibility for guaranteeing financial support after enrolment extends and what should happen, for instance, if the funding originally envisaged cannot be maintained. The regulations should therefore be clarified in this respect.
Postgraduate studentships
Students who are appointed to postgraduate studentships are both students according to the provisions of the Higher Education Ordinance and also employees with fixed-term appointments. Being an employee means that in most cases postgraduate students enjoy adequate social security provisions. However, the National Agency for Higher Education considers that the current regulations applying to the renewal of postgraduate studentships do not guarantee the funding for the entire study period required by postgraduate students in their specific situation as both enrolled students and employees. For this reasons some clarification and augmentation of the Higher Education Ordinance is needed.
Today, if requested by the students, the higher education institutions are obliged to appoint grant-maintained postgraduate students to postgraduate studentships when, according to their individual syllabuses, two years of full-time postgraduate study remain before completion. This requirement was introduced to provide greater opportunity for postgraduate students to acquire a post for approximately half of their study period at least. Some of the higher education institutions go further than this and offer this possibility to students who finance their studies from some source other than grants. This study reveals, however, that this possibility is not always open to postgraduate students because of the weak financial position of their own departments or lack of information about the right to a post for their two final years. The regulation in question is formulated as an absolute entitlement for postgraduate students. Lack of funds cannot, therefore, be invoked, but the resources must be made available to enable at least the postgraduate students covered by this provision to take advantage of their rights.
The total period of an appointment should not be extended because of shortcomings in the supervision offered or too extensive departmental duties. One suitable method of monitoring supervision and preventing over-exploitation of postgraduate students is to ensure that the extent of supervision and departmental duties is specified in their individual syllabuses to enable prompt rectification of any discrepancies that may arise.
Grants for postgraduate students
Grant-maintained postgraduate students are not entitled to sickness or unemployment benefits. This is one of the reasons why the social situation for these postgraduate students is not as favourable as for those with postgraduate studentships. It can be determined that the position of postgraduate students is particularly weak when the faculty board/department is considering whether or not to renew a grant, especially when the student is applying for an extension while currently on sick leave. Some regulation of the insurance provisions for postgraduate students is therefore required.
The National Agency's review reveals that the regulations regarding the withdrawal of grants to postgraduate students do not provide satisfactory legal protection of their rights. Clarification is therefore needed of the terms on which grants to postgraduate students may be terminated and the procedures to be adopted.
Other forms of funding
The National Agency for Higher Education is of the opinion that the acceptability of some form of funding or combination of different ways of ensuring financial support when students are enrolled with "other forms of funding" must be considered in the light of the special circumstances that apply in different disciplines. In making these assessments, greater weight must never be attached to private funding than to aptitude for postgraduate studies. To provide postgraduate students with the greatest possible degree of legal protection it is important that careful records are kept in the case of enrolments with "other forms of funding" of how faculty boards assess the guarantees that funding will be available for the entire study period and the time frame involved so that students are aware of what is taken into account. Thorough records and a well-considered finance plan can also provide a useful platform for amendments that may have to be made during the study period.
Faculty board supervision
The National Agency for Higher Education wishes to emphasise that it is important for faculty boards to take a standpoint on the funding principles that apply to enrolment and monitoring in postgraduate programmes and that these standpoints are clearly expressed in the higher education institutions' procedures for enrolment to postgraduate programmes and in other forms of information provided to students.
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