An Edinburgh University PhD student has said he doesn’t know how he will pay for rent at the end of the week after the university failed to pay out his monthly stipend.
Ben Fisher is a PhD student at the university’s School of GeoSciences. The university has also owed Ben for expenses since July as well as the stipend - essentially a tax-free salary - which he relies on as his primary income.
“I currently have no idea how I’ll pay my rent at the end of the week. My salary is all of my income and any reserves I had had to be spent on expenses to keep my research going over the summer. If they don’t pay up soon I’ll have a serious problem on my hands,” Ben said.
University bosses apologised and said they were unable to reimburse or pay its students and staff back for expenses since July after switching to a new payment system while the delayed PhD stipends are down to a separate technical issue.
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A University of Edinburgh spokesperson said: “A technical error, unrelated to the university’s systems, caused a delay in stipend payments for some of our PhD students on Friday. While we cannot comment on individual issues, any outstanding cases have been escalated to the highest level to be resolved as quickly as possible. We apologise to those affected and we are working to ensure this will not happen again.”
Ben has tried to reach out to the university for help and assistance as he is struggling to pay bills and rent without his monthly stipend but he said it has been difficult because the university only has one email address to contact for problems.
“I don’t know anyone who has had a response,” he said. “Line managers and heads of school have issued apologies but nobody seems to be accountable for what is going wrong.”
In response to the issue, the university’s director of professional services sent Ben’s department an email suggesting that students ‘should seek advice on handling money or apply for hardship funding.’
Ben supplied a screenshot from the email which stated: “We are aware that the stipend issue and backlog of expenses payments will have a negative impact on individuals' financial circumstances. Please find links to resources that can provide some support, in particular the discretionary and hardship schemes listed on the first two links.”
The email goes on to list links to the university’s student funding website, the Edinburgh University Students Association emergencies and hardship webpage; a money advice webpage; and a webpage for cost of living finance advice.
“‘Forgetting’ to pay your PhD students their stipends, after months of not paying their expenses, is one thing. But to then suggest we should seek advice on handling money or apply for hardship funding is so inappropriate. I already have funding, I just need them to send me it,” Ben tweeted.
Ben explained that PhD students have a contract with the university for approximately three-and-a-half years to be paid a monthly stipend, which is essentially a tax-free student salary. However, the stipend does not have the same protections that come with employment.
“On this occasion where they have failed to pay some of us, we have little recourse to do much about it. The university keeps passing us from pillar to post and it seems nobody is accountable for this,” Ben explained.
A University of Edinburgh spokesperson reiterated that the PhD stipend payments and the expenses issue are separate matters. As regards the new finance system and unpaid expenses, the university said it is ‘acutely aware’ of the disruptions.
The spokesperson said: “The university recently implemented a new finance system, which required us to interrupt financial processing for a period over summer to allow us to test the system and transfer huge volumes of data. We are acutely aware of the impact that this is having on some of our staff and students, and have apologised for the disruption. We will continue to communicate with our community to ensure they are aware of the work that is being undertaken to address their issues, and how we are prioritising payments.”
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