Information for faculties and chairs
You will find the most important information on all questions relating to the awarding of scholarships here.
The Ruhr University Bochum awards numerous scholarships to particularly qualified and capable students, doctoral candidates and other early career researchers (post-doctoral scholarships) from both budget and third-party funds to support researchers in the early stages of their careers.
Scholarships are processed by the Scholarship Office of Department 2.
Even before setting up and awarding a scholarship, faculties and chairs should familiarize themselves with the basic regulations, effects and issues involved in awarding scholarships.
Above all, it is important to clearly distinguish the scholarship from an employment relationship subject to social insurance contributions.
The Scholarship Office will be happy to answer any questions you may have at any time. Please do not hesitate to contact us in good time to clarify important questions in advance of the scholarship being awarded.
Scholarship administration
Department 2, Registrar's Office
SSC 0/256
Office hours by appointment
A scholarship is usually paid as financial support to
The payment may not be linked to services provided by the scholarship holder that are usually provided within an employment relationship.
The service that must be provided by scholarship holders consists solely of the defined purpose of the scholarship, such as a doctoral or research project or a specific course of study.
Scholarship holders should therefore be obliged to regularly inform their supervisor about the current status of their research work.
The approval period is usually 12 months, with the possibility of extension if necessary. This approval period has proven its worth in that a scholarship can expire if problems arise - without the hassle of a termination or similar.
If you wish to extend a scholarship, please inform the scholarship office at least two weeks before the start of the next approval period.
A shorter approval period must be justifiable in relation to the purpose of the scholarship. For example, a doctoral scholarship should also be paid for the duration of the doctorate, unless it is support for a specific phase (stay abroad, final phase, etc.).
In principle, the institution or the donor determines the amount, unless this is done by a foundation, the DFG or similar institutions.
Many RUB faculties base the amount of the monthly scholarship on the DFG guidelines:
Irrespective of the DFG guidelines, some doctoral students also receive grants of up to € 1,700 per month, while post-docs often receive research grants of up to € 2,500 from foundations.
If the scholarship amount differs significantly from the sums mentioned, please consult the scholarship administration before making a commitment to the scholarship holder.
As a rule, the above-mentioned sums presuppose that the scholarship holder undertakes to devote his/her entire working capacity to his/her research project.
Secondary employment - if at all - is only permitted to a limited extent. The requirements are usually described in more detail in the guidelines of the scholarship provider.
The permitted scope of secondary employment is generally between 6 and a maximum of 9 hours/week and usually a maximum of €1,800 to €6,000 in additional income per year.
Some foundations and donors only consider additional earnings from academic work to be permissible.
A (secondary) employment relationship must be clearly differentiated from the research project in terms of content and must be reported to the scholarship administration.
The scholarship is intended to secure the scholarship holder's livelihood during their studies, dissertation or research project. Scholarships are therefore not subject to social security and tax.
For these reasons
Both contributions and taxes may be demanded by the relevant authorities years later and supervisors may face criminal charges.
The following indications point to an employment relationship:
Not all points need to be present for a distinction to be made, nor do individual indications rule out a scholarship per se.
There is no entitlement to leave as in an employment relationship, as the scholarship holder conducts research independently.
This does not mean that scholarship holders are not entitled to recreation in the sense of vacation: They must organize their recovery on their own responsibility without jeopardizing the purpose of the scholarship.
If there are compelling reasons to coordinate absences (e.g. due to laboratory activities, involvement in research groups, etc.) with others, it is recommended that the duration of the absence etc. be based on regulations that also apply to employees.
As a scholarship does not constitute an employment relationship and the payment does not constitute remuneration within the meaning of tax law, it is exempt from income tax and is not subject to social security contributions.
The tax office responsible for the scholarship holder assesses the tax exemption:
In the worst-case scenario, this can lead to a tax office finding the amount of the scholarship payment to be above an appropriate rate and taxing it accordingly.
Court proceedings are currently underway in which tax offices want to tax scholarship payments of over €2,000 per month, as the amount exceeds what is necessary to fulfill the research task or to cover living expenses.
If your permanent place of residence is outside Germany, double taxation agreements may apply. You can enquire about this at the relevant tax office or specialized tax consultants.
A scholarship (in comparison to an employment relationship) must meet the following requirements:
Statutory regulations on tax law
As a scholarship is not an employment relationship subject to social security contributions, scholarship holders must take out their own private or voluntary statutory health insurance, unless they are a member of a family insurance scheme due to marriage, a registered marriage-like relationship or similar.
It should be noted that scholarship holders generally pay the employer's contribution in addition to the contribution they would have to pay as employees.
The costs for health insurance are included in the cost of living and are therefore included in the scholarship. It is worth comparing health insurance companies, as they treat the topic of scholarships differently.
There is no entitlement to benefits from unemployment insurance, nor does a scholarship have a positive effect on the amount of your later pension, as no social security contributions are paid from a scholarship.
Unless otherwise stipulated by the scholarship provider, there is no entitlement to payment of the scholarship during maternity leave.
As maternity protection allowance and parental allowance are calculated as wage replacement benefits based on earnings from employment subject to social insurance contributions, scholarship payments are not taken into account. Maternity protection allowance is therefore generally not paid and parental allowance is only paid in the minimum amount (around €300).
Unlike doctoral students or other students, post-docs are not enrolled at RUB and are insured against liability and accidents as members of the university.
Especially in the case of laboratory work, scholarship holders should therefore be strongly advised to take out accident and liability insurance.
Doctoral scholarship holders must enrol at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum. The Registrar's Office announces the deadlines with the current dates for enrollment in good time each semester.
Outside of these deadlines, a separate appointment can be made at immatrikulation@uv.rub.de if there are compelling reasons.
