Law and regulations concerning PhD students: Data Protection and Health Insurance

General Data Protection Regulation

In accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation we inform all members of GGG that we save and store our PhD students’ personal data collected via our questionnaire. Furthermore, we save information on your course applications, suspensions from our courses, and GGG funding. This data will be stored after your graduation for the purpose of potential later inquiry, for statistical evaluation and, where appropriate, to contact you as alumni.

In the context of your PhD studies, the core data (name, gender, German or international degree, supervisor, and email-address) will be processed within Göttingen University. This data will not be passed on to third parties and will be protected against unauthorized access.

All PhD students and supervisors that are members of GGG, as well as interested persons, receive our newsletter via email during their PhD studies (or because they signed up individually). If you want to unsubscribe from our newsletter, please notify us at ggg@uni-goettingen.de.

Judgement on health insurance for PhD students

On July 6, 2018, the Federal Social Court confirmed that PhD students cannot be classified as students when taking out public health insurance during their PhD studies. The Federal Social Court explained that the meaning of the term „enrolled student“ in the area of statutory health and long term care insurance does not match the higher education status as enrolled student.

This poses problems especially for PhD students holding a grant and being thus classified as „self-employed“ for matters of health insurance, which implies health insurance fees of 150 up to 400 EUR per month, depending on the health insurance provider.

A second decision of the Federal Social Court further aggravates the situation: According to the Federal Social Court, lump sum allowances during PhD studies are to be treated as assessable income.