Just a few
weeks ago, the highest decision-making body of the European Students' Union
(ESU) - The Steering Committee, composed of 47 national student unions from 39
countries - adopted a resolution calling for the abolition of the idea of
introducing a European Masters Degree loan guarantees.
Earlier, ESU expressed serious concerns about this new instrument, included in the new Erasmus for all proposals under the multi-annual financial framework (MFF) for 2014-20. ESU's detailed position on the program can be found here.
ESU has a clear policy of support favored as a means of student support through loans. This is related to our belief that higher education is a social responsibility that should receive public financial support.
Earlier, ESU expressed serious concerns about this new instrument, included in the new Erasmus for all proposals under the multi-annual financial framework (MFF) for 2014-20. ESU's detailed position on the program can be found here.
ESU has a clear policy of support favored as a means of student support through loans. This is related to our belief that higher education is a social responsibility that should receive public financial support.
At the end of the day, the advantages of a highly educated population is higher than normal economic reasoning training skilled labor, because generally more educated society is more equal society.
Mobility target 20%
But let's leave ideological battle aside for a moment and return to the proposal now have on the table.
First of all, let's talk numbers. There's a fight for every euro that should be spent on the new Erasmus for All program.
We, of course, welcome an increased budget in the new MFF, but we also like to clarify how we see it as a continuation of what (EU) Ministers of Education of the EU agreed on before - setting standards so that by 2020 at least 20% of students should be experienced a study period abroad.
Therefore, we think it is absolutely reasonable that higher education receives a relatively higher than in previous years. This is also important if we want to commit to the social dimension of the objectives of EU programs, such as tying aid to the destination of study.
The loan guarantee is set to receive approximately 5% of the overall budget for the Erasmus for All. But, if we do a simple arithmetic exercise and try to see how much it would mean for the proportional part of the higher education budget, a loan scheme will claim about 10% of the total.
The scheme may be an option for students to use, but in terms of value added cost is simply too high.
No comments:
Post a Comment