The Government approved in May a new Regulation for the Award of Scholarships to Higher Education Students (RABEEES), which aligns the value of support granted with students' economic conditions and the cost of living in the region where they study. The full implementation of the new model is expected only by 2027/28, which, according to the author, allows time to prepare the platform, adjust procedures, and train social welfare services for this change.
The article highlights the importance of social welfare for thousands of families, considering that it is often the difference between completing a degree and dropping out due to lack of economic conditions. Data from the National Access Contest shows that out of 49,991 students placed in the first phase, approximately 3% come from disadvantaged families.
At the University of Aveiro, a simulation with 72 scholarship student cases showed that, according to the new rules, 15 students would no longer meet the conditions to receive a scholarship, representing 20% of the cases analyzed. Although the sample is small and does not allow extrapolating the impact to the approximately 3,500 scholarship recipients at the institution or to the approximately 80,000 scholarships awarded in Portugal last academic year, other institutions report similar reductions.
The author, rector of the University of Aveiro, warns that the success of a social welfare reform cannot be measured solely by the value of support, and the number of students who maintain access to this support is equally crucial. He argues that a good social welfare policy should not only give more to those who already receive it, but also ensure that no one is left behind.
