The scholarship reform, a major project for the Minister of Higher Education
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“Illegible”, “unsuitable”, “insufficient”, “infantilizing” : the student representative organizations do not have words harsh enough to describe the system for allocating grants based on social criteria, managed since 1995 by the 26 regional centers for university and school works (Crous). Reputed to be very technical and postponed several times during the previous five-year term, the reform of the stock exchanges is the first sensitive file that Sylvie Retailleau is about to open.
A consultation should start in the first half of September, announced the Minister of Higher Education and Research, during her hearing before the Senate’s Culture and Education Committee on July 20. It should be rolled out locally, bringing together all the stakeholders, establishments, rectorates, Crous, student organisations, local authorities and the voluntary sector. “Implementation will not be easy”specified the Minister, who expects to “first impacts” at the start of the 2023 academic year and “a finalization of the reform a little later”.
To tackle the subject of scholarships is to examine the living conditions of young people who have become precarious. The health crisis has revealed a stark reality: you can be a student and lack food. “If the queues at the food distributions are always full, it is good that the grant system does not allow us to meet the needs”illustrates Eléonore Schmitt, national secretary of the student union L’Alternative.
Granted according to the resources of the parents and the expenses related to the characteristics of the family, the scholarships have eight levels, from the highest (5,679 euros annually) to the lowest (1,032 euros annually). In 2020-2021, 750,000 students received this financial aid (38.4% of those enrolled in courses authorized by the ministry to receive scholarships), an increase of more than 4% in one year. For students with the lowest resources, the increase reached 7%, according to a statistical note of the ministry.
Middle classes excluded
The main grievance against them is that the scholarships partly miss their mark. The breakdown of the amounts by level generates threshold effects and in fact excludes an entire population from the middle classes. “Slight variations in parental income can, in some cases, lead to significant variations linked to the transition from one level to another.noted a senatorial mission in a student living conditions reportin July 2021. For example, an income that changes from 22,500 euros annually to 22,501 euros induces a reduction in the grant of 667 euros, or 40% of its amount. »
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