Student organisations believe stipends should be retained but feel it is worth exploring options that would ensure the grants remain sustainable.
The importance of the stipends' sustainability was emphasised by Central Bank Governor Michael C. Bonello who pledged his support for the recent proposal by University rector Juanito Camilleri to give students the option of deciding whether to receive their stipend or not.
The rector suggested that students who opted for the stipend would be required to repay the money once they graduated.
The stipend money of those who opted not to take the grant would go towards a University trust fund and the students would then benefit from tax cuts once they started working.
Speaking during the launch of the bank's 2008 annual report on Thursday, Mr Bonello said the rector's proposal was "very sensible" and was based on solidarity because it would ensure that future students too would be able to receive a stipend. Thus, the system would remain sustainable.
University Students' Council (KSU) president Roberta Avellino said the rector's proposal was interesting and worth considering but added that before making such decisions the impact on students should be studied.
She believes stipends should be retained because they are an investment in students.
Agreeing with this, Pulse president Tyson Fenech said stipends should never be threatened because they were "a form of social benefit for students".
He agreed that students should have the option of deciding whether to receive their stipends or not. "However, students who choose to receive their stipends now should not be forced to pay it back or to engage in any other form of loan," he said.
Pulse and KSU agreed with the proposal for a trust fund which, they said, should contain money allocated to the University.
Pulse said the fund should not be sustained by the money that would have gone to those students who opted out of the stipends system. The government should give more incentives to companies to invest in this trust fund by deducting their taxes, Mr Fenech suggested.
Always a hot topic, the stipends issue hit the news after a survey carried out by student newspaper The Insiter recently found that one in 10 students wanted the €84 monthly grant removed.
Education Minister Dolores Cristina said the government would be looking for creative solutions when it revised the student stipends system, which could include voluntary work as a way for students to repay society.
In a recent report, the National Commission for Higher Education pointed out that the total student support (which includes scholarships, stipends and educational schemes) stood at just over €20 million last year.
This is expected to increase to about €23 million in 2020 if the government is to reach its vision of having 85 per cent of 17-year-olds in post-secondary education by 2015 and increasing the participation rate of 19-year-olds at the University to 35 per cent by 2020.