An amendment to the Higher Education Act improves conditions for doctoral studies. The main changes concern the income and status of doctoral students. Luděk Bláha, Vice Dean for Doctoral Studies at SCI MUNI, describes how our Faculty is preparing for the changes.
The problem of financing doctoral studies has been around since the 1990s. For a long time, doctoral students received a scholarship payment directly from the Ministry of Education, regardless of their results. The scholarship, which was originally CZK 4 000 at Masaryk University, later increased to CZK 12 000 and, in recent years, has reached CZK 15 000 to CZK 16 000. This money was provided directly by the Ministry. Thanks to this practice of so called per capita payments, there was no pressure on the university or PhD supervisors to think economically and control scholarships in relation to study quality and performance.
In 2024, the Ministry of Education decided to shift the responsibility on funding PhD students to universities. Thus, universities now decide to whom they allocate scholarships and at what level. The aim of this change is to create a system that is efficient and economic. Universities need to redesign the scholarship system so that they support PhD students who are genuinely committed and have a high level of performance. In the past, there has been a problem with high failure rates, with up to 50% of students unable to complete their studies. The new system seeks to address this problem by putting the responsibility for decision-making on the universities and faculties, which can take an individual approach to the needs of students, while simultaneously combining care for the allocated scholarship budget and the performance of doctoral students.
Simply put, the amendment sets the minimum income for each PhD student in the standard period of study and full-time form at 1.2 times the minimum wage in the Czech Republic, which for the academic year 2025/2026 means about CZK 25 000. This income can be made up of various components, such as scholarships or wages from an employment contract with the university or an external employer. This change forms part of a broader systemic adjustment that requires adaptions to the entire system of financing doctoral students. Universities are intensively addressing how to properly combine the different income components.
The change in funding concerns the overall set-up of the relationship between the actors involved in doctoral studies, i.e. doctoral students, supervisors and the university. Doctoral studies should be seen as a form of mutual support and cooperation, where the university offers an environment for development and the doctoral student contributes his/her research work in return. The money thus serves as a tool to motivate PhD students to pursue quality research work and as a reward for their efforts. However, the topic of PhD student status is not clearly defined and is still debated among universities. Some faculties, such as arts faculties, do not have grant resources and must rely solely on scholarships. On the other hand, faculties that have grants may provide a combination of stipend and employment to PhD students. This allows doctoral students to gain the socioeconomic status of employees and benefit from both positions, e.g. when applying for mortgages or loans. However, these changes require major adjustments and adaptations to administrative and academic processes. Universities are now preparing guidelines outlining how to implement the new combined status and what it means for individual PhD students. In some cases, they may be full-time funded by grants, in others part-time combined with a scholarship, or they may be employed outside the university, e.g. at institutes of the Academy of Sciences. Owing to the individual nature of doctoral studies, each doctoral student should be considered separately; it is not appropriate for universities to apply a blanket approach and a one-size-fits-all policy, as has been the case until recently. In our Faculty, we want to ensure that, within a period of about four years, the maximum number of doctoral students will be in a position where they are both staff members and students at the same time.
Provided that the amended university Act will pass the approval in the parliament, the new rules concerning the minimum guaranteed income for PhD students will be applied at Masaryk University from September 2025. The University has decided to ensure a level playing field for all PhD students, regardless of whether they are new entrants or existing students. This means that the same minimum financial security conditions will also apply to existing students as must apply to new students. The scheme is therefore being designed so that, from September 2025, the University will be fully compliant with the requirements of the amended Act.
In the context of the new funding system, universities, including our Faculty, are focusing carefully on the admissions process and a more rigorous selection of applicants. The university must learn to plan capacity in a new way, because the scholarship budget is not unlimited and does not increase with each new student. If the school accepts more PhD students, it must have sufficient funding for them, for example from grants. Within the Faculty, we are already discussing setting a maximum capacity for each department and doctoral program, considering how much money is available from grants and fellowship programs. Only as many PhD students will be admitted as the school has funds for. If more quality applicants apply, the best candidates will be selected, with other topics possibly being offered that cover the needs of the Faculty.
In practice, for example, care for PhD students will be improved by the guaranteed minimum income itself, which will also be amended annually in line with the minimum wage in the Czech Republic. The obligation to provide more financial support encourages supervisors to pay more attention to their doctoral students. PhD students will no longer be seen as “cheap labour” but as independent young scientists who are developing and need support in their professional growth. The Faculty further supports motivated PhD students with other programmes, such as the MUNI Mendel Doctorandus, which offers a spectrum of educational opportunities and enhances transferable skills that doctoral students can then apply after graduation, even outside academia. In addition, we will shortly be re-accrediting the doctoral programmes, which will describe in more detail the care of doctoral students and their individual needs.
English is the primary language of science and at the Faculty we naturally integrate communication in English into all programmes. This creates conditions for the admission of students from abroad. From the position of the Faculty management, we encourage PhD students and the departmental boards to submit dissertations in English. Subsequently, opponents and committee members from abroad are expected to be involved in the dissertation defence process. The aim is to open opportunities for international cooperation and comparison of conditions between Czech and foreign students. This latter step is part of a broader plan to ensure the international competitiveness of Faculty programmes.
Our emphasis is on students taking responsibility for their studies and their doctoral research. Doctoral studies are not a kind of extension of a master’s degree but require independence and an active approach. We also want to encourage PhD students to be involved in the evaluation of supervisors and to provide feedback. This is already being used in some Faculty programmes, with PhD students organising and communicating in action groups, such as the PhD Student Committee, which then provides input to the programme guarantor and doctoral board. This approach encourages collaboration between PhD students and supervisors and is based on best practice used abroad.
My goal over the next two years is to create harmonised processes for all those involved in doctoral studies at the Faculty. I want the doctoral boards and all doctoral students to be well informed and aware of the minimum criteria and standards, which will greatly simplify and reduce the necessary administrative burden. It is also important to communicate with all stakeholders, including the doctoral boards and the institute directors, so that the system remains harmonized and transparent.
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