Malta among most generous in aid to tertiary students

Malta is among the most generous financial supporters of tertiary education students in the EU, as apart from offering free tuition it also dedicates more than 30 per cent of its expenditure in this sector to grants (stipends) for its students.

According to the 2007 issue of its Data On Higher Education In The EU, published by the European Commission based on information released in 2003, Malta dedicated 0.83 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) towards tertiary education. This data excludes any investment in the post-secondary area.

The total expenditure on tertiary education in Malta is lower than the average in the EU which in 2003 amounted to 1.14 of GDP. The biggest investors in tertiary education among the EU member states were Denmark (2.5 per cent), Sweden (2.2 per cent) and Finland (2.05 per cent).

On the other hand, Malta has one of the highest expenditures on student grants. It spends 30.2 per cent of the funds dedicated to the University on grants, with the remaining figure, 69.8 per cent, allocated to tuition costs.

Only Cyprus is more generous than Malta, dedicating 56 per cent of its tertiary education budget towards scholarships and grants, with the rest of the investment, 44 per cent, given to support tuition expenses at its universities.

Despite the higher global investment by other member states such as Sweden and Finland, these countries dedicate less towards students' grants and more towards tuition. Sweden, for example, dedicates 28 per cent towards grants and more than half of it goes out in soft-loans which will have to be paid back following graduation.

The Commission's report also states that Malta is doing very well when it comes to the number of Maltese students following their tertiary education in other European universities.

In the 2003/2004 academic year, 8.4 per cent of Maltese tertiary students were following a course in another European member state. This is much higher that the EU average of 2.2 per cent.