PhD stipend increase is ‘step one’, Harris says

A €3,000 increase to the PhD stipend is not the “end of the story” and there will be a further rise to the payment in future, Minister for Higher and Further Education Simon Harris has said.

The Minister on Thursday announced the Government will increase the stipend paid to PhD students by €3,000 from January to a total of €22,000 per year.

However, the increase still leaves the payment below the recommended level of €25,000 proposed in an independent national review of State support for PhD researchers last May.

Low rates of pay for PhD candidates have sparked protests in recent months and warnings from students that inflation and cost-of-living issues have created a “crisis” which threatens the sustainability of higher-education research.

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Asked about the measure at a post-Budget 2024 press conference, Mr Harris acknowledged that the increased stipend was still not where it should be.

“It’s step one. The independent report … says we need to get to €25,000. This, I think, is the largest increase in PhD stipends in many, many years. This is not the end of the story, far from it,” he said.

“I think €25,000 is where we need to get to but I would argue that by any fair measure €3,000 in one go is a good step. I’m pleased that we have been able to do it.”

The move will affect an estimated 3,000 PhD students funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and the Irish Research Council (IRC), but will not have an impact on the estimated 10,000 PhD researchers in total across Ireland funded by higher-education institutions and other competitive funding agencies.

Mr Harris said he could “only do what’s in [his] control”, and the two agencies SFI and IRC were within his control from a funding point of view.

“I would imagine we would see other agencies also trying to move, that’s a matter for them. In relation to our universities, I know they themselves have been among the strongest advocates in terms of increasing [stipends],” he said.

The move has been criticised by the Postgraduate Workers’ Organisation of Ireland, which has campaigned on the issue, and which said the increase did not go far enough.

The Minister’s department has secured a budget of more than €4 billion for next year and he said the money was “about making education more affordable, more accessible and more inclusive”.

Some of the measures that will be delivered through this funding include postgraduate students receiving a maintenance grant for the first time since the financial crash, thousands of students benefiting from increased grants from January and post-Leaving Cert course charges being removed.