Walter Finch
THE new restrictions on university scholarships for pupils in Gibraltar are targeted at ‘fraudsters and freeloaders’, the government has announced.
‘Genuine cases’ of pupils born in Gibraltar will not be affected and the government is ‘generally aware of the background of pupils who attend state schools’.
However, students who ‘attend private schools here or outside of Gibraltar and who claim rights to automatically qualify for scholarships via links to Gibraltar’ will have to undergo means testing.
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The clarification comes after an outcry prompted by the announcement that only pupils currently attending the government-funded schools of Bayside, Westside or the Gibraltar College will automatically qualify for university grants.
The decision excludes pupils at private school Prior Park from Gibraltar’s flagship scholarship program, which covers the tuition fees for Gibraltarians students to study in the UK.
“The objective by tightening the award criteria is to catch out those who are not entitled to benefit from free scholarships,” the government said in a statement.
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“The point is that genuine cases, particularly those with children born in Gibraltar, have nothing to worry about.”
Sorting out who is entitled to these benefits and who is not is key, with the government claiming that while it generally knows the period of residency and other relevant matters of the pupils in state schools, it does not have the same level of knowledge for claimants outside the government-funded system.
“The new criteria will assist in making the distinction between those who are entitled to a scholarship award and those who are not,” it said.
The policy change follows from comments made by Chief Minister Fabian Picardo in his New Year’s message, in which he said ‘we must define clearly who is entitled to the many benefits that our nation provides to its citizens.’
Gibraltar is famed for its generous social policies, which provide free healthcare and university education to all citizens – but not all residents.
“It is time to ensure that our rules are clearly drawn to provide these benefits to our people and NOT to those who may move here simply to benefit from them,” Picardo said in January.
The flagship scholarship program cost the taxpayer over £17 million in the financial year 2023/2024, according to government figures.
