A student assistant is an employee who contributes to academic research and higher education. This concerns activities that are necessary in the context of research and/or education and for which scientific training is required or desired. Student assistants may only be employed for research and/or education work. They cannot be hired to carry out managerial or administrative tasks. For activities of this nature, an employment contract must be concluded in accordance with the University Job Classification profiles.
Student assistants must be enrolled as full-time students in a university-level Bachelor's or Master's programme. The tasks should reflect the student's academic level and ability. They may not be part of the student’s curriculum or be used to earn academic credits.
Student assistants will be offered a fixed-term employment contract by Campus Detachering. In most cases, this contract is on an on-call basis. The employment contract will be terminated as soon as the student is no longer enrolled in the academic programme.
Student assistant tasks and responsibilities
Student assistants mainly play a supportive role. They are not permitted to carry out independent research and/or teaching tasks. A dedicated supervisor will be appointed to oversee the work carried out by the student assistant. This work is intended to benefit both the student and the programme. Supervisor tasks consist of:
- helping students with assignments during seminars and self-study
- collecting study materials
- supervising practicals
- preparing practical experiments
Student assistants will receive assignments and instructions well in advance to give them plenty of time to prepare for the seminars and to support students. Checking, correcting and assessing completed assignments is always done under the supervision of the lecturer.
Student assistants may only assist with assessing exams with the prior consent of the dean (or vice dean) of education. This permission will only be granted following capacity considerations. So as not to favour or disadvantage student assistants, the following conditions apply with respect to assessing exams:
- The lecturer bears ultimate responsibility for the assessment and for overseeing the student assistant.
- Student assistants may not assess open-ended questions that require an argument or reasoning from the student. Student assistants may review other questions with the help of a written assessment guide drawn up by the lecturer.
- Examinations may only be assessed by students from a different study year.
- The lecturer will randomly select several exams to assess.
- Exams with scores between 50% and 60% of the total points to be obtained will always be re-assessed by the lecturer.
Research tasks consists of:
- finding literature/collecting research data
- preparing articles/texts for publication
- preparing for consultancy/advice requests
- carrying out lab work to support researchers
Student assistant vacancies
Given the short-term nature of the work carried out by student assistants, no open recruitment or selection process is in place. Vacancies for student assistants are announced as soon as possible within the relevant research and education groups. Students can check Radboudnet and the Campus Detachering website for potential student assistant vacancies in their programme. If they are interested in applying, they can contact the relevant lecturer. If several students apply for a student assistant vacancy, a selection will take place based on suitability.
Salary
The salary depends on the student’s academic year. The following salary scales apply to student assistants:
- First-year and second-year students: level 2 of the student assistant scale
- Third-year students: level 3 of the student assistant scale
- Fourth-year students (and higher): level 4 of the student assistant scale
First-year students are discouraged from applying for student assistant positions, as they should have the opportunity to gain experience in higher education and research.
Payment
Student assistants with a fixed employment contract will be paid a monthly salary.
Student assistants with an on-call employment contract must declare their monthly work hours . If the student assistant is employed as an on-call employee, this person will have to declare the monthly hours worked through Campus Detacherings online hours portal. If there is an employment contract with the university itself, the student will declare the hours worked in BASS.
Student assistants with an on-call contract will receive a gross hourly wage. All employees are entitled to holiday pay and a year-end bonus. These benefits, along with the holiday hours entitlement, are included in the gross hourly salary.
Financial aid and income
The income earned as a student assistant may affect the amount of financial aid a student is entitled to. Consult the DUO website for more information.
Travel expenses
If a student assistant does not have access to free public transport during the week (i.e. of they do not have a public transport (OV) card), he or she is entitled to a travel allowance in accordance with the Radboud University Travel and Moving Expenses Scheme.
Illness and absence
If a student assistant is ill while on-call, he or she must report this to their chair group/unit and to Campus Detachering before 9.30 am. When reporting sick, the student assistant must provide an address and phone number where they can be reached.
If the absence is the result of an accident (whether private or at work), this should be also be stated when reporting sick.
Health insurance
All students are covered by health insurance. Student assistants who live abroad and work in the Netherlands are required to take out Dutch health insurance. This means finding an insurance company in the Netherlands and paying monthly premiums. The Dutch health insurer will send the student assistant an E106/S1 form. Students residing in Germany can return the completed form to the Krankenkasse. Doing so will allow them to seek medical care in Germany, which will then be covered by the Dutch insurance company.
Holidays
Student assistants with a fixed employment contract are entitled to 232 holiday hours per year for full-time employment according to the standard working hours. If a student assistant does not work full-time, the holiday hours will be determined based on the actual hours worked.
Student assistants with an on-call contract are not entitled to holiday hours, but the value of these hours will be incorporated into the gross hourly wage.
Unemployment benefits
If the employment contract is terminated, students may be entitled to unemployment benefits (Non-statutory Unemployment Regulations for Dutch Universities, WW-BWNU).