Carey Camel
DELAYS in state-sponsored grants to Spanish university students have left many unsure about how to budget for their educations.
Spain’s secretary of state for education, Monserrat Gomendio, blames Catalunya for these delays.
She asserts that the region was late for reporting student number data, creating a hold up for the rest of the country.
The newly reformed grant system was intended to help students from poorer backgrounds with tuition, living, and transportation costs.
However, leader of the reforms and minister for education, culture, and sports, José Ignacio Wert, has now split the grant system into two parts: one based on a family’s income within fixed parameters and the other based on more variable information, such as students’ grades and applicant volume.
The new system means greater insecurity for students applying for grants. A more unfortunate statistic, though, is that students will receive on average receive €300 less than the previous year.
According to Luis Cereijo, president of the Coordinadora de Representantes Estudiantes de Universidades Públicas de España (CREUP), these delays and cutbacks have students resorting to bank loans to cover costs, or even dropping out entirely.
