PhD funding and assistantships in Europe: the PhD is a job

The thing that changes everything

Advice written for the United States describes a PhD as a programme you are admitted to, funded by a scholarship or a teaching assistantship you apply for separately. Most of Europe does not work like that.

In much of Europe, the doctoral candidate is staff. You hold a contract, you are paid a salary, you accrue pension rights, you pay tax, you get holiday, and your family's residence rights follow from employment rather than from study. You do not apply to a programme and then hunt for money — the money is the position, and it is advertised as a vacancy with a closing date.

Do not take the salary figures from an article — including this one. Each university publishes the current scale on its own HR or vacancy page, and in the Nordic countries the figure is fixed by collective agreement and revised. In Italy the minimum doctoral grant is set nationally by ministerial decree and revised periodically. Read the specific advertisement.

What an assistantship actually is here

The American teaching assistantship — a separate award of tuition remission plus a stipend in exchange for teaching — largely does not exist in this form in Europe. What exists instead:

• Duties inside the employment contract. Many Nordic doctoral contracts include a stated share of teaching or departmental work, often up to about 20 percent of your time, in exchange for a longer contract. It is not an award; it is a clause.
• Project-funded research posts. A grant pays for a researcher for a defined period; you apply as you would for any job.
• Separate hourly teaching. Some universities pay doctoral candidates for teaching on top, but this is casual work, not funding.

If an advertisement mentions an assistantship, read the contract terms rather than assuming the American meaning.

What you need before you are competitive

1. 1A completed Master's, in most systems. A three-year Bachelor's alone is rarely enough — see three-year versus four-year bachelor degrees and CGPA and ECTS conversion.
2. 2A supervisor who wants you. In project-funded systems the supervisor already has the money and is choosing a person. A well-judged email, referring to their actual recent work and attaching a CV and a short research statement, is the standard opening move. A mass mailing is not.
3. 3A research proposal, where the system asks for one — Italy, Hungary and many project-free applications do.
4. 4Evidence of research output. A strong Master's thesis, a conference paper, a publication. Not required everywhere, decisive where it exists.

The honest warnings

⚠️ An unfunded PhD offer in Europe is usually a bad deal. Three to four years of living costs plus the visa's financial requirement, with no salary and no realistic time for full-time work, is a very large sum for a qualification whose value depends heavily on the research being funded and supervised properly. If the offer carries no money, ask specifically why.

⚠️ A doctorate is not a shortcut into a country. It is a job with a fixed term. What follows it depends on ordinary rules — see post-study work and residence in Europe.

⚠️ A European doctorate in a regulated profession is not a licence to practise. A PhD in a clinical, legal or psychological field does not by itself confer the right to practise, in Europe or in Bangladesh, where separate registration applies.

Where to look, in order

1. 1EURAXESS — the European Commission's research jobs portal, which carries funded doctoral and postdoctoral vacancies across the continent.
2. 2The university's own vacancies page. Many positions appear here first and some never leave it.
3. 3The research group's page. Grant-funded posts are often announced by the group before anything else.
4. 4National doctoral school announcements in Italy, Hungary and Bulgaria, which run on fixed annual cycles rather than continuously.

Set a search alert and check weekly. Nordic vacancies in particular close quickly, and the deadline is real.