Higher education students from households with income below the poverty threshold will now receive the maximum educational grant, according to the Government’s proposal to reform social action presented to partners today.
The proposal for the new system of social action in higher education also provides that “support adjusted to the costs of living in the municipality” where students study is guaranteed, “differentiating displaced and non-displaced students”, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation (MECI).
The guardianship also proposed to the partners the creation of an incentive scholarship aimed at students benefiting from step 1 of the family allowance (lowest income)automatically awarded upon enrollment in the first year of higher education, with a value of 1045 euros per year.
According to the ministry, the proposed reform of the social action system “aims to ensure that all students are able to attend and complete a course, regardless of their economic situation”, and “its starting point is the diagnosis carried out by Nova SBE, which identified structural limitations in the regime currently in force and demonstrated the impact of scholarships in reducing school dropouts”.
The proposed reform provides that “the real cost of living will be estimated for each municipality where there is a higher education offer, including expenses with tuition fees, food, transport and accommodation”, with a differentiation made between displaced and non-displaced students to ensure that “the support is proportional to the costs incurred”.
The value of the scholarship to be awarded will result from the difference between the real cost of studying in a given municipality and the income that the family can provide to the student to attend higher education.
“If the difference is positive, the student receives a grant”, says the MECI statement, adding that “this method guarantees full progressivity and automatically adjusts the eligibility threshold to the expenses calculated in each municipality”.
Households with income below the poverty threshold will be considered incapable of contributing, and the maximum scholarship will be awarded to the student, the Government proposes.
The incentive scholarship aimed at students benefiting from step 1 of the family allowance “intends to mitigate the initial entry costs and reduce the uncertainty faced by the most vulnerable students, promoting a more stable and secure transition to higher education”, explains the MECI.
The Government’s proposal defines that support for housing “it is proportional to family income and the real cost of rents practiced in different regions of the country”.
“The new model guarantees that all displaced students who face accommodation costs will have access to the respective supplement, avoiding situations of exclusion generated by the rules in force”, assures the ministry, which awaits, before the final version of the reform text, the contributions of partners, including universities, polytechnics, associations and academic federations, who today learned about the proposal in a “first consultation meeting”.