Government to get creative on stipends

The government will be looking for creative solutions when it carries out a revision of student stipends, which could include voluntary work as a way for students to repay society, according to the Education Minister Dolores Cristina.

She was asked to react to the University Rector's recent proposal of giving students a choice to either pay back their stipends once they graduated, or to give them up altogether and benefit from tax cuts instead.

Ms Cristina said the rector's proposal was "interesting" and worthy of discussion but added that another form of repayment could be made through voluntary work.

"This would not only be highly beneficial to society but would also give students a first-hand experience and an insight into social and community needs," she said.

She explained that the government's objective should be to make stipends "ever more sustainable", adding this issue was bound to become a choice topic of discussion in the coming months.

"This is, after all, the year of creativity and innovation, which should help us find a good balance," she said, hinting at a creative solution.

She added, however, that it was important to keep in mind the educational targets of the Lisbon Agenda.

The aim is that by 2015, 85 per cent of students will continue studying beyond secondary education. The ministry's fear is that without stipends, a number of students would be discouraged from doing so.

"It's true the system needs to be sustainable but without stipends it will be more difficult to reach those targets," the spokesman said.

However, this premise was recently disputed by the Ecofin Country Focus, a European Commission report that said it was doubtful that stipends actually led to increased participation in tertiary education.

The stipend issue has recently reared its controversial head, after a survey carried out by the student newspaper The Insiter found that one in 10 students wanted the €84 monthly grant removed. Although the survey only targeted 130 students, it was still an interesting shift from the usual "don't-touch-my-stipends" attitude by students.

Rector Juanito Camilleri later commented that stipends were a privilege not a right and should be revised to make it more sustainable. But instead of removing the stipends altogether or creating a system of means-testing, Prof. Camilleri's idea is to give students a chance to decide for themselves whether they need the monthly grant or not.

"I am proposing that we challenge our youth to make important personal choices with a sense of civic responsibility. I believe such choices will strengthen their moral fibre," he had told The Times.

cperegin@timesofmalta.com