I am in my second year of my PhD, and have been having stipend problems throughout the whole PhD.

The advert on the university website, to which I applied, stated my stipend amount, and that I would get £1000 annual increments. However, my supervisor now informs me that he 'made a mistake' and there will be no annual increments. In addition to this, my stipend is around £500 less per year than the amount advertised.

My supervisor tells me, that as I am a student, I have no legal rights with this, as it is not covered by employment law.

I cannot believe that this is true (well I am really hoping it isn't) as currently, I stand to get around £8,000 less over the course of my 4 year PhD, than I was led to believe when applying for, and accepting my PhD. This is a very significant amount of money to me and my family, and I feel like I am being taken for a bit of a fool, if they expect me to just write it off without trying harder to get at least some of it.

Does anyone have any ideas on what I can do?

Thanks in advance

Which country are you in? And what is the funding source (a studentship? funded through a programme grant?) That might have a bearing on the answer.

In the UK, a body called Research Councils UK set a minimum recommended amount for studentships funded through their subsidiaries. But I don't know if this is enforceable in law.

I started my PhD in 2011 and my offer letter clear stated that the stipend would increase by 1-2% per year. Then the public sector pay freeze kicked in and it never did. I did raise this once, but never got anywhere with it and felt too awkward to ask again.

I think the relevant document is not the advert but rather whatever sort of contract you signed. If it's in the contract you have rights, if not you don't really.

I am in the UK too, seems like we have had similar problems. I have not signed a contract. The only thing I have is my job advert, and my supervisor told me verbally! Not much help :-( I can't believe that they can get away with this. Like you I feel awkward bringing it up, but it is such a large amount of money, I really feel that I shouldn't just forget about it. It is not my fault that this mistake was made, yet I am expected to be the one that pays for it!

No I have no contract. But I am sure that there should be some sort of law to protect students? Maybe not, but it seems if there is no law, then people's stipends could be cut half way through their PhD?

Someone mentioned on here a few weeks ago that PhD students were covered by employment laws. Also, just because you haven't signed a formal contract, doesn't mean that you aren't actually covered by a contract. Things like offering of an agreement and acceptance of an agreement constitute a contract - I can't remember he exact details of contract law, but it's something like that. The acceptance of our PhD offers means we are covered I think.

Thanks, that sounds really interesting. I felt that we must be covered by something. I will have a look around here and see if I can find out some more. If you do remember where you saw it, that would be great. Thanks

If you are funded by a RC then at some point you must have accepted the studentship. That constitutes a contract. For my RC the terms and conditions of the studentship are made very clear on their website and you accept them by accepting the studentship. But there is likely to be wording that leaves the power in their hands, to cover what has happened i.e. cuts in their overall funding. If you are funded by the university, then again I can't see how they could process payments to you without there being any similar paperwork. But once again, although I'm not a lawyer, I don't think what is in an advert has legal standing, it's whatever you signed to accept the offer.

Well I never was given any information to the contrary of the advert, until I was well into my PhD. When I accepted the studentship, I was doing so based on the studentship advert which I had applied for. You might be right that this has no legal standing, but I would be surprised, as common sense would dictate that it is not right to be able to change the agreement without consent from the student ... although I know law and common sense do not always go hand in hand ...