Free legal advice for international PhDs/academics
International students and researchers often face a broad variety of legal issues during their stay in a host country. Professional legal advice can be rather costly and therefore not accessible to all scholars, particularly for early stage ones. Free legal advice offered to international scholars can help resolve and prevent difficult situations that could require more time and resources, compormise their security or cause reputational damage to the institution.
Goals
Improved quality of service Improved access to information Enhanced safety and security
Basic information
| Categories | Administrative & Legal Support |
|---|---|
| Mobility stages | Pre-arrival phase During mobility phase Upon arrival |
| Delivery schedule | Continuous |
| Importance | Nice to have |
| Scale of organizational change |  |
| Target groups | PhD student/Early career researcher R2 - R4 researchers |
|---|---|
| Types of contracts of researchers | Full degree student Permanent employee |
| Career stages of researchers | Less than 6 months 6-12-months of experience 1-3-years of experience 3-10 years of experience 10-15 years of experience More than 15 years of experience |
| Lengths of stays of researchers | 0-3 months 3-6 months 6-12 months More than 12 months |
Practice setup
Legal advice should encompass most common issues facing international scholars:
- Renting and accommodation
- Immigration matters and family law matters
- Employment and work-related legal problems
- Discrimination & harassment
- Sexual assault & criminal charges
- Traffic offences & accidents
- Fines & debts
- Frauds & consumer rights
- Domestic violence matters
- Financial issues
- Company set-up
- Etc.
Free or low-cost legal advice can be organised in collaboration with law faculties or local legal centers. It can be coupled with free/low cost translating and interpreting services.
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Universities can set up collaborations with various organisations that offer legal support on different matters (e.g., immigration, employment, business development, translation). Such collaborations could help optimise the scope of expertise needed.
Practice delivery
Typical legal advice can be offered through a dedicated webpage based on several common scenarios: "making a rental agreement", "rent being increased", "broken things where I live", "not being able to pay a fine", etc.
More personalised advice can be offered based on university's internal expertise held by in-house lawyers as well as law faculty members and students interested in gaining hands-on experience.
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Relevant information and legislation updates can be sourced from the partner organisations.
Examples of practice
Campus Legal Aid Clinic
The Campus Legal Aid Clinic provides a wide range of free legal help to the students of the University of Pécs, thanks to the successful cooperation of law students and experienced lawyers.