Stipends are 'essential and sustainable'

Stipends are "essential" and sustainable in their present form and the money spent on them might even need to be increased, according to the Parliamentary Secretary for Revenues and Land, Jason Azzopardi.

"The government spent over €20 million last year on stipends and we are determined to keep this figure unchanged or, if anything, increase it," he said yesterday.

He was speaking at the University where the Christian-Democrat Students (SDM) presented him with a survey which found that almost 90 per cent of students believed stipends were a necessity.

The survey was conducted this week in the run-up to the University Students' Council (KSU) elections, which this year are also being contested by a coalition of 10 student organisations, ACT.

SDM's survey found that slightly more than half of the 400 respondents believed the provision of stipends was an "absolute must", 140 thought it was "somewhat necessary" and 16 called it a "luxury".

The figures tally with another recent survey carried out by the student newspaper The Insiter, which had found that about 90 per cent of students wanted stipends to be retained and more than 10 per cent said they wanted them removed.

Dr Azzopardi's renewed commitment to the stipends echoed that of Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi who recently promised that the stipends would stay.

This comes weeks after University Rector Juanito Camilleri called for a revision of the system in order to make it more sustainable. He proposed a system whereby students would pay back the state once they graduated and got a job. He also suggested that students should be given the possibility of donating their stipends to be used for investment in the University in order to get tax-breaks once they start working in return.

When asked whether he agreed with Prof. Camilleri's proposal, Dr Azzopardi said all ideas were worth considering, adding that there was nothing wrong in being creative and innovative in order to explore new ways to strengthen the stipends system.

However, he said that by 2015, Malta had to ensure that 85 per cent of the student population continued studying after secondary school and the stipends were essential for this to happen.

A number of recent reports have contradicted this statement. The European Commission's Ecofin report, for example, doubted whether stipends were actually increasing the number of students attending University in Malta.

When questioned about this report, Dr Azzopardi said the government "agreed to disagree".

He thanked SDM for the survey and said their report would be passed on to the government for evaluation.

SDM president Lauro Fava said his organisation would continue to ensure that the stipends were strengthened because this was a social and not just an educational fund. SDM was worried about the rector's proposal because it would mean that disadvantaged students would remain disadvantaged.

cperegin@timesofmalta.com