Hi everyone
I've just started my PhD and my employer (university A) is making a contribution to fees (University B). The part time fees are £1720 per year and uni A will pay £1500 maximum per year (subject to satisfactory reports etc). They will make no further contribution to travel or resources. In exchange for this I have had to sign a contract which says that in the event of my leaving the university I have to pay back all the fees paid by them for the duration of my PhD and 2 years beyond that. After that there is one year when I would have to pay back 50%.
My supervisors are really shocked and have said they have never come across this. My lead super also thinks that my employer should be more generous regarding resources, travel etc (I did get costs to go to a conf form res committee but can't get anything for fieldwork costs).
Has anyone come across this before? It seems very harsh to me but I had no choice but to sign. Uni A requires me to do the PhD but is not resourced to supervise it themselves and Uni B is better for my subject. They also benefit from recruiting newly / part qualified PhDs (is doing what they are preventing me from doing). They will also get benefit from my publishing during my PhD
Uni B is also 30 miles nearer to my home and is better for my subject and so my hope is I will be able to get a job at uni B (they have in previous interviews indicated that the lack of PhD progress is all that stopped me getting the jobs).
I contacted UCU branch rep who took it up with region and they came back with the view that they can do what they want.

I'd be interested in other people's experiences.

Hi

I had a similar thing for my Masters degree - my employer (a local authority) would pay my fees but I had to stay with them for four years after graduating; if I left within 2 years I had to repay all the fees, within 3 years 50% of the fees, within 4 years 25% of the fees. (I decided not to take them up on this, a good thing since I left to start my PhD as soon as I finished the Masters!) I had the impression this was fairly standard in this situation, where I didn't strictly need the qualification to do the job but they would still benefit from me gaining it.

However, it sounds like your situation is different - they say you need the qualification, rather than it being something you're choosing to do purely from your own interest. In that situation it does sound harsh, particularly if you can't do the qualification with them (which woul presumably be cheaper for them than paying fees to a different institution). But I don't know how common this is in this sector, I'm afraid. I suppose from their perspective they don't want to invest in you only to see you leave before they can get the benefit from their investment. My feeling is that if this is the deal that's on the table, and you have no other real options, it's worth just going with it and not letting yourself feel resentful about it. At least they are paying your fees! And once you've got the qualification it might be that you can walk into a good enough pay rise that paying back at least part of the fees doesn't look nearly as bad anyway....

Cheers

Batfink

I am from Greece and I work as a teacher. When I decided to start my PhD, I applied to the ministry of education for a leave from my work (I didn't get it, but that's another issue). If I had got it, after finishing the PhD I would have to work as a teacher for 3 years for each year of leave (that is 9 years for a 3 year PhD)... otherwise I would have to pay them back all the money that they had given me (that is 18.000 euros per year)...
But that's in Greece.
Now I am doing my PhD part-time and I work full-time....

The difficulty I have is that I will probably not get a sufficient pay rise from any job (I am currently more than half way up the lecturer scale) - whe I worked in industry and qualified as an accountant fees were paid with no handcuffs as it was seen as a reciprocation which comes around. I guess my best hope is that Uni B (having had my fees paid to them) woudl possibly give me some sort of refund when I eventually get a job with them.
I'm interested though in other poeople's experiences in Uk universities (I know that overseas countries often do this for studetns who get sent abroad and get a stipend as well)

Hi,

Im in almost the exact same situation. My work (uni A) is not able to fully support me academically, so are paying my fees for me to complete a FT Phd with Uni B. I just received my contract, they want me to commit to staying with them post PhD for 3 years or pay back the fees that they are paying for me. To be honest, I hate the fact that 'they own' me, and they just have to cough up a reasonably small amount of cash and Im the one that got to do all the hard work :-s

I may decide to fully fund myself, less hassle, and don't feel tied into any contract which will make things awkward if I decide to leave after I finsh my PhD. Like you, my uni will benefit from my pubs, and the 'credit' for supporting a PhD student.

Id try and negotioate some more if possible, or just go it alone if possible

I wouldn't mind so much if it were a full time PhD but it is part time for which I get 296 hours on my workload plus £1500 of the £1720 part-time fee with no more for conferences, equipment, transcribing, travel for fieldwork etc etc.  I can apply to research committee for conference fee etc and hope to get some (I managed to get some this year so suspect that I won't get any next year).

I've just persuaded my boss to give me petrol money so I can go to a meeting (and I only asked for that as he had had some to go to listen to some seminar).  I tried negotiating and it was take it or leave it - I'm treating it as an interest free loan and I have persuaded them that the expectation that it would all be paid back in the two months between handing in notice and actually leaving is unreasonable and would leave me and my children destitute! They have now said that should I leave in before completion or within two years then I could negotiate repayment (£1 a week sounds good to me!)