PhD funding blunder in Aeronautics Department

Eleven PhD students in the Department of Aeronautics have been left angered and confused after their monthly bursary payments were cut in December and January. No forewarning was given to the students; a blunder described as “unfortunate” by the Head of Department.

Nine of the affected students are supported by funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) which sets a national minimum stipend designed to cover their living costs. This amount for 2010-11 is £13,590 and increases in line with inflation each year; using the Treasury’s GDP deflator, a measure of general inflation. However, the EPSRC does not make payments directly to students. It gives a block grant to Imperial, approximately £6m, which is then distributed to departments who decide how much each student receives.

It is therefore the department that pays the students an amount which, in previous years in the Aeronautics Department, has coincided with the EPSRC minimum stipend plus an additional ‘London Living Allowance’ of £2000 to cover the costs of living in the city. However, when the students checked their bank accounts in December, they noticed they had been paid a reduced bursary that month, which adds up to a total cut of £223 for the year.

The Head of Department and Professor of Aerostructures, Professor Ferri M. H. Aliabadi said that the bursaries are set not according to the EPSRC’s rates, but by the College minimum rate for PhD students. He explained that, “by mistake, in October and November 2010, the payments were made at a higher rate than the College minimum recommendation. In December a correction was made to the EPSRC bursary payments, reducing them by an average of £18.50 per month, to re-align the student bursaries with the College minimum.”

The College minimum rate is determined by the College’s Management Board and is not directly linked to rates offered by research councils. The discrepancy of £223 for 2010/11 is because the College’s minimum rate increased by 0.5% while the EPSRC’s minimum increased by 2.5%.

Malcolm Aldridge, the Head of the Bursaries Payment Office, explained that the staff pay throughout the College had also increased by 0.5% and that when the decision was made, there were significant pressures on higher education institutions to restrain pay increases.

Professor Aliabadi apologised for the reduction in payments and said that he had not been aware of the discrepancy between the EPSRC minimum and the College minimum. He confirmed that the affected students would have their funding returned to the EPSRC minimum plus the London living allowance. However the situation for two of the students who are on Airbus-funded grants is not yet clear.

Alex Kendall, President of Imperial College Union, has said that he does “not think it is right that any department can cut salary half way through the financial year,” and has asked the Pro-Rector (Education and Academic Services) Professor Julia Buckingham to look into the issue.

The lack of communication has also been heavily criticised by the students affected. Oliver Rhodes, a PhD representative in the Department of Aeronautics, said, “if a meeting had been arranged and the students been properly informed I doubt there would have been an issue.”

Professor Aliabadi explained that failure to notify students was due to “staff workloads, accentuated by staff absences through sickness”. He described the lack of communication as an unfortunate oversight and added that, “in no way have we ever attempted to pay students at anything other than the fair and proper rate.”

A similar situation arose regarding the payment of postgraduate students in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE) last term. Students were confused over whether their funding included payment for their four hours of required teaching activities per week. The department was forced to introduce a new measure to reduce the current bursary and have students explicitly earn their lost money. After this latest run of events in the Aeronautics Department, Alex Kendall highlights that such problems “may be more widespread.” He continued “The department has a lot of explaining to do to its students and the Union is looking into whether this is happening in other departments.”

EPSRC PhD Funding

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funds research and training in engineering and physical sciences across the UK – investing in excess of £850 million per year. Imperial College London receives approximately £6m per year from the EPSRC, which it distributes to various departments.

Each department allocates its funds as it sees fit but the EPSRC sets a minimum stipend that PhD students on their grants must receive, which for 2010/11 is £13,590. It increases this year on year with inflation, as determined by the Treasury GDP deflators; a measure of general inflation. For example, for 2010/11 it increased by 2.25%. Universities have the flexibility to fund their students’ PhDs from a variety of sources but at least 50% of the minimum stipend must come from the funds of a single Council.

Imperial has its own recommended minimum stipend, which is approved by the Management Board. For 2010/11 it is £15,367. It is not directly linked to any one measure of inflation. According to the EPSRC, their rate is set to increase at 1.5% for 2011/12 and then 2.5% for 2012/13. The College have said that while they would not want to anticipate their future minimum rate, it was possible that the two amounts would reach parity in coming years.