A decision on whether to release funds for the EU’s Erasmus programme in Malta is expected in the coming days, the Education Ministry said yesterday evening in reaction to an angry student statement over the “unacceptable delay” in the processing of applications.
After that decision is taken, the European Programmes Agency, which manages the programme, would be able to proceed with the selection of applicants, the ministry said.
It recalled that last March, the Commission had partially lifted its suspension of the Youth in Action and Lifelong Learning programmes so that the agency could issue calls for applications and process them. However, it could not finalise the choices and inform the applicants until the suspension was completely lifted.
The University Students’ Council claimed in the morning that students had been “left in the dark” about their applications to participate in exchange programmes like Erasmus.
In a harshly worded statement, the KSU condemned the “deplorable” way in which the applications were being handled by the ministry and its payments agency, Eupa. “Such an unacceptable delay has left student applicants in the dark as to whether their Erasmus application will receive the necessary funding that is usually allocated.”
This is the second year running the programmes have suffered setbacks. Last year, Malta’s EU study programme funds were suspended by the European Commission due to mismanagement. The government ended up forking out the money instead of the EU to find a “temporary solution” for the students. But this mobility programme, which the government offered to replace Erasmus, was not launched this year, making the situation worse, according to the KSU.
“The KSU has been incessantly trying to reach both Eupa and the Education Ministry to solve the matter but no sort of answer or communication has been returned leaving the KSU with no choice but to go public,” the council said, adding the matter directly affected Maltese students’ welfare and rights. “Such a delay shall seriously thwart the wide range of opportunities that EU membership has created for Maltese students, if not dealt with at the earliest.”
If the issue is not dealt with in the coming days, the KSU has threatened to raise a petition to put further pressure on the authorities to act.
“The KSU calls upon the relevant authorities to acknowledge and solve this issue without any further delay while also calling upon the Maltese student body to unite in defence of what rightly belongs to it.”
The students have set up an online detail form on www.ksu.org.mt where students who applied for the next academic year’s Erasmus programme can keep abreast of developments.