Queensland Workcover wants universities to pay worker compensation insurance premiums for PhD students on stipends. Unis aren’t impressed

 The dispute follows a WorkCover decision that such students injured in the course of their research, on or off campus, are workers and their stipends “are assessable as wages for premium purposes.” The decision is based on the case of a CQU student.

However, CQU is set to appeal the ruling and universities are readying to reject workers’ compensation premiums for similar students. According to the Australian Higher Education Industrial Association, there are nine legal reasons why PhD students on scholarship are not employees of the university where they research.

“PhD candidature does not involve the provision of labour for reward. It involves the provision of scholarly activity for the attainment of an educational qualification. The relationship is that of a student and educational institution, not that of employee and employer. It is a relationship of an entirely different character,” AHEIA executive director Stuart Andrews argues in a letter to the Queensland Office of Industrial Relations seen by CMM.