Information for scholarship holders

Obligation to notify changes

Scholarship holders must notify the scholarship office of any changes to their financial circumstances, bank account details, address, etc. no later than 10 working days before the change takes effect.

Secondary employment

An approved scholarship is generally paid on the condition that the scholarship holder undertakes to devote his/her full working hours to the research project.

This means that secondary employment - if at all - is only permitted to a limited extent. More details can usually be found in the guidelines of the scholarship provider. The permitted scope of secondary employment is between 6 and a maximum of 9 hours/week, usually with a maximum additional income of € 1,800 to € 6,000/year.

The employment relationship must be clearly delineated from the research project and the scholarship administration must be notified.

Some foundations and funding bodies only consider additional earnings from academic work to be permissible.

Vacation entitlement

Since scholarship holders conduct their research independently, they are not entitled to vacation as they would be in an employment relationship.

However, this does not mean that they are not entitled to recreation in the sense of a vacation, but merely that they must organize this on their own responsibility without jeopardizing the purpose of the scholarship.

If there are compelling reasons for coordinating absences with others (e.g. due to laboratory activities, involvement in research groups or similar), we recommend following the regulations that also apply to employees.

Some foundations and donors list specific regulations and absence times in their guidelines.

Taxes

As a scholarship does not constitute an employment relationship and the payment does not constitute remuneration within the meaning of Section 14 SGB IV, it is tax-free under the conditions of Section 3 No. 44 of the Income Tax Act (EStG). These conditions also mean that it is not subject to social security contributions.

The tax exemption is checked by the tax office responsible for the scholarship holder.

If the permanent place of residence is outside Germany, any existing double taxation agreements may apply. Ask the relevant tax office or specialized tax consultants about these.

Liability and accident insurance

Since post-docs are not covered by liability and accident insurance through their enrolment at RUB as members of the university, we strongly recommend that all scholarship holders take out accident and liability insurance - especially in the case of laboratory work.

Enrolment

Doctoral scholarship holders must enrol at Ruhr-Universität Bochum. The Registrar's Office announces the deadlines with the current dates 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.

• Further information on enrolment at the RUB