British PhDs are somewhat unusual as you are still explicitly a student - with all the tax benefits that entails. Most positions are funded by Research Councils

British PhDs are somewhat unusual as you are still explicitly a student - with all the tax benefits that entails. Most positions are funded by Research Councils UK (STFC, EPSRC, NERC and so on) which gives a reasonable tax-free salary. You get council tax exemption, no student loan repayments, no income tax/national insurance. You also get 8 weeks holiday entitlement as standard. We have tuition-only grants for EU students, but that doesn't include living. Vanishingly few universities provide full funding for foreign students - the exception is positions which have project funding. In most of Europe the situation is different: you're employed by the university. This has ups and downs. On the upside, it doesn't matter where you're from, you still get paid. On the downside you're a salaried employee with all the tax burdens, crappy holiday and HR requirements that brings. The pressure in the UK is time. Universities are now under serious pressure to churn students and 4 years is a hard deadline. Typically you need special permission and have to pay a fee to submit after 4 years. In most cases you're also only funded for 3 years, occasionally 3.5. In other countries, where you have an employment contract, it's less urgent provided your group has funding. It's common for EU PhDs to take 4-5 years. This is again good and bad. The British system encourages rapid specalisation at the expense of breadth of study and number of publications. Realistically in the UK if you get one journal publication, you've done well. Abroad, it's expected you'll get at least 2-3 and in some places you need 4-5 to form a thesis.