Malta can expect another influx of Spanish students this summer, the Spanish Embassy has confirmed, allaying fears from local language schools that the Spanish government scholarship scheme for students to study English in Malta would be scrapped or watered down.
No official announcement on the continuation of the scholarship scheme in Malta had been made this year, prompting speculation that it would be sacrificed as Spain attempts to rein in its budget deficit, but the Spanish Embassy told The Sunday Times that the scheme would continue.
“There is no reason to expect a decrease” in the number of Spanish students arriving in Malta this year, the embassy added.
According to the Spanish Embassy, approximately 40,000 Spanish students have studied English in Malta since 2007 when the scholarship scheme, known as Becas MEC, was introduced.
If the scheme was scrapped it would hit the local English as a Foreign-Language (EFL) teaching industry hard, at least temporarily, according to the Federation of English Language Teaching Organisations Malta (Feltom).
“There are concerns from some schools that the scheme is not sustainable for the Spanish government long-term. Should it be scrapped in future, the local industry would take a hit and would have to work hard to develop new markets and consolidate existing ones,” Feltom executive officer Isabelle Pace Warrington said.
Becas MEC provides eligible Spanish students with €1,700 to complete a minimum three-week English, German or French language course in countries specified by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science; Malta is listed as an official English-language destination.
If the language course costs less than €1,700 students spend the remainder as they wish – one of the reasons why Malta’s EFL industry is concerned about the sustainability of the scheme, according to Ms Warrington Pace, which seems expensive at a time when the Spanish government is committed to cutting expenditure.
In 2007, the first year of the Becas MEC grants, the number of Spanish students who enrolled in specialised English-language schools in Malta was 13,465; up from 3,260 the previous year. That same year the total number of foreign students attending English courses in Malta increased from 65,983 to 83,952.
Although figures have since dropped slightly, the level of Spanish students has remained well above 2006 levels, with 9,267 arriving in 2009 and similar figures expected for 2010.
“Without doubt, the Becas years have boosted the local EFL industry and contributed to an unusual rise in numbers over recent years. Nonetheless, local schools are constantly targeting new markets and the industry is strong enough to recover if the scheme is ever stopped,” Ms Warrington Pace said.
But while the EFL industry and many people involved in the tourism and leisure industries have benefitted from the Spanish scholarship scheme in recent years, not everyone would be sad to see it scrapped.
Spanish students have gained a reputation for being raucous in the localities where they tend to live, notably Swieqi, Pembroke, Sliema and St Julian’s; fuelling the suspicion among some local residents that many of them come to enjoy a holiday paid for by the Spanish government, rather than to study.