Information for doctoral students

Scholarship Awards Regulations provide for a supplemantary allowance of €400 per child. If you are a scholarship holder and receive parental benefit, it will be deducted from the child supplementary allowance. However, parental benefit will not be deducted from the scholarship money.

Please note that you only receive the child supplementary allowance upon request and starting from the month in which you make the application (the birth month at the earliest). The relevant application can be found here

The scholarship's initial duration is one year. As a rule, a scholarship may be extended twice to reach the three years upper limit allowed.
If, however, you live with a child unter 12 years of age in one household or care for dependent relatives, the scholarship may be extended for up to 12 months in total after the maximum funding period has expired. This does not apply of your funding period covers fewer than three years.

<link file:14509 _blank>More Information about scholarship extension

The relevant application can be found here

As a rule, the scholarship period may be interrupted to care for a child, provided your supervisor or the relevant selection committee agrees. During the interruption, the funding will pause and you will have to cover your living expenses with child and parental benefit. If you apply for unemployment benefitt II or housing allowance, your partner's income will be taken into account in calculating your entitlements.

Students who received a doctoral scholarship before the birth will only receive the basic allowance of 300€. Parental benefit is not affected by the scholarship funding, because it is not an income from gainful employment.

Scholarship holders cannot apply for parental leave if they are not in dependent employment. As a rule, the scholarshop period may be interrupted. During this pause, however, no money will be paid.

Paid employment at the beginning of the statutory maternity protection period is required for maternity protection leave and allowance. The relevant health insurance determines the allowance amount. Therefore, doctoral students, who receive a scholarship and are not in paid employment, are not entitled to statutory maternity protection leave and allowance.