Barcelona

Postgraduate students in Spain have set up a nationwide organization in an attempt to improve their working conditions.

Known as the ‘Precarious National Federation’ — to reflect the situation in which the students see themselves — the new organization wants to see the current system of monthly student grants replaced by ‘training contracts’ that last for the whole length of the students' studies. The federation also wants all postgraduates to be given the status of ‘research personnel in training’.

The creation of the federation reflects widespread dissatisfaction among students over their employment situation. Manuel Pérez-Mendoza, president of the federation and a research chemist at the University of Granada, says most postgraduates in Spain have no employment rights, such as affiliation to the social security system or health benefits.

Elisenda Vendrell, co-founder of the federation and a biologist at the Cancer Research Institute in Barcelona, argues that the work of postgraduate students “is seriously undervalued in the labour market”.

She points out that even though the students spend a long time doing grant-supported research, as well as teaching, their work is not properly recognized. “For example, we have no representation in the governing bodies of public research institutions,” she says.

Researchers in the federation have been making their case to senior university officials and those responsible for science in the main political parties. They also intend to negotiate directly with the Ministry of Education and Culture and the recently launched Ministry of Science and Technology.

The postgraduates have received support from some senior researchers. “Governments tend to adopt a rather cynical attitude towards young researchers, because they know that their eagerness to do research can lead them to accepting working conditions which would be unacceptable at a comparable level in other fields of employment,” says John Beckman, research professor at the Higher Council of Scientific Research's Astrophysics Institute of the Canary Islands. “This situation is accentuated in Spain because of the rigidity of its administrative system”.