Europe’s doctoral candidates are caught in a chasm of compensation, with a new report from the European Council of Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers (Eurodoc) laying bare the stark reality of pay gaps across the continent. University World News reported that the data reveals a starting salary in Denmark of €58,013 a year, which is more than 25 times the annual stipend for a doctoral candidate in Ukraine at €2,263.
Nordic Countries Lead Doctoral Pay Rankings
The Eurodoc survey, a first-of-its-kind comparative overview of remuneration in 27 European countries, paints a clear geographical picture. Nordic and Benelux nations dominate the top tier, with Denmark leading the pack, followed by Germany, Belgium, Norway, and Switzerland. These countries compensate their doctoral candidates with salaries, while the bottom 14, with the exception of Estonia, rely on scholarships.
The financial gulf is staggering. A doctoral candidate in Hungary earns €4,615 annually, a figure so low it makes concentrating on scientific dreams nearly impossible, according to Katalin Solymosi, an assistant professor at Eötvös Loránd University. It is very hard to attract and retain the best talent,” she said, “and let them concentrate on realising their scientific dreams while they are struggling for everyday survival.” On the other side of the coin, a PhD student in Denmark can earn more than a full professor in Hungary, a dynamic that Solymosi describes as a “unidirectional brain drain” that “will never become brain circulation until such huge disparities persist.
The Purchasing Power Paradox: A Reality Check
But the headline figures only tell part of the story. The raw salary numbers, Eurodoc acknowledges, are gross figures before tax, often represent starting rates, and are not adjusted for the cost of living. A deeper analysis by Marian Sauter reveals a more complex picture. When he converted the average salaries into Purchasing Power Standards (PPS), the gap between Denmark and Hungary shrinks from 12.6 times to 7.6 times.
Expensive countries like Switzerland and Denmark see their relative advantage diminish significantly. “Expensive countries slide down: Switzerland goes from about €49,700 to about 28,500 PPS, and Denmark and Norway each lose more than a quarter of their value,” Sauter explained. His analysis shows a clear block of high purchasing power running from the Alps through Germany and the Benelux up to Scandinavia, with the lowest purchasing power found in Eastern Europe, Italy, and Portugal. “In Germany, prices are only slightly above the EU average, so a full-time German PhD salary buys more than anything else in the table,” he concluded, highlighting that the contractual status—often part-time in countries like Germany and Austria—further complicates the comparison.
Defining the Doctoral Role: Employee or Student?
The Eurodoc report also highlights a critical ideological and contractual divide: whether a doctoral candidate is considered an employee or a student. In Denmark, this distinction is clear. “In Denmark, we therefore regard PhD candidates as employees who should enjoy the same salary standards, employment rights and working conditions as other university graduates employed in the public sector,” stated Brian Arly Jacobsen, an associate professor at Copenhagen University and chair of the DM University union. He framed the high Danish remuneration not as an accident, but as the result of “decades of collective bargaining” to ensure doctoral candidates are treated as professional researchers.
This “employee” model stands in contrast to the “scholarship” model prevalent in many other nations. However, the lines can be blurry. Topias Tolonen-Weckström, a PhD student at Uppsala University, pointed out that while Sweden is marked as a salary-based country, it also has many scholarship-funded doctoral students. Similarly, in Finland, despite being listed as salary-based, a majority of doctoral students are on scholarships. The average starting salary in Finland is closer to €35,000 annually, and it rises as the dissertation progresses, she noted.
Talented Graduates Choose Doctoral Opportunities
The data is particularly uncomfortable reading for countries like Italy. With an annual gross doctoral remuneration of just €16,243, Italy is far behind its European competitors. “Against Italy’s annual gross doctoral remuneration of €16,243, Denmark reports €58,014, Germany €55,557, Belgium €50,800, Switzerland €49,675, the Netherlands €36,708, France €26,400 and Spain €24,360,” Debuglies News highlighted in its coverage of the “Italy’s doctoral compensation crisis.”
Talented graduates can choose where to pursue their doctorate, and they compare opportunities across countries. From an Italian perspective, this is a crucial point: policymakers cannot assess the adequacy of doctoral funding solely by comparing it with local income levels.
Michele Meoli, University of Bergamo
Michele Meoli of the University of Bergamo emphasized that this is an international market for talent. He stated, “Talented graduates can choose where to pursue their doctorate, and they compare opportunities across countries.”
Eurodoc hopes its data will serve as a catalyst for change. “We hope that this collection can serve as a reference for our 31 member organisations… particularly for those where minimum guaranteed salaries or scholarships fall far short of the average,” said Norbert Bencze, President of Eurodoc. The organization maintains that doctoral salaries should at least be comparable to those of an upper secondary school teacher, a standard still far from reality in most of Europe. As the continent’s research ambitions grow, the question of how to fairly support its next generation of scholars remains an open and urgent one.
