Towards a fair IHEID for PhD researchers
The Geneva Graduate Institute (IHEID) funds PhD researchers below the Swiss poverty line, underpays teaching assistants, and bars access to social protections. While being promised support and stability, researchers are left exhausted and in a constant struggle to afford basic needs like housing an healthcare. What quality research is possible under these conditions? What academic freedom?It's time to say together: ENOUGH! FAIR WORKING CONDITIONS FOR ALL PHDS AT THE INSTITUTE!SUPPORT PHD RESEARCHERS, SUPPORT QUALITY RESEARCH AND TEACHING AT THE IHEID
A joint campaign of the Association des Assistant·e·x·s de l'IHEID (AdA), the Graduate Institute Students Association (GISA), and the Syndicat interprofessionnel de travailleuses et travailleurs (SIT-IHEID)
Our demands
In 2015, the employment contracts of teaching assistants at the IHEID were changed with the explicit goal of "avoid paying [TAs] social contributions". Since then, PhDs at the Institute have denounced their poor working conditions. Today, eleven years later, first- and second-year PhDs are forced to live well below the Swiss poverty line. Teaching assistants (who are generally third- and fourth-year researchers) are underpaid and de facto barred from accessing social protections (see the details here). Meanwhile, the Direction is planning a reform that risks making everybody's working conditions even worse!
As PhD researchers contribute fundamentally to the Institute's teaching, research, and reputation, we call on the IHEID Foundation Board and Direction to show institutional responsibility and commit to fair working conditions for all PhDs. We demand, at a minimum, that:1) all PhD researchers be brought above the Swiss poverty line;2) all teaching assistants receive a contract that recognises both their research and teaching as working time and comprises a fair contribution to social security, in line with TA contracts at the University of Geneva;3) the Institute hire at least sixty teaching assistants per year, as promised by the IHEID Direction in the context of their last reform of the PhD programme.Ensuring fair working conditions for PhDs is not only a matter of welfare and dignity, but a prerequisite for quality research and teaching!
News
9 Feb 2026:
The petition 'Towards a fairer IHEID for PhD researchers' has been signed by more than 130 PhD researchers at the Institute in less than a week! Today, the petition was sent to the IHEID Direction and Foundation Board.
27 Jan 2026:
The petition 'Towards a fairer IHEID for PhD researchers' is now open for signatures! You can read and sign it (if you are a PhD researcher at the IHEID) here.
Contacts
Towards a fair IHEID for PhD researchers is a joint campaign of the Association des Assistant·e·x·s de l'IHEID (AdA), the Graduate Institute Students Association (GISA), and the Syndicat interprofessionnel de travailleuses et travailleurs (SIT-IHEID).
En construction – coming soon!
