Wert suspends economic aid to scholarship Erasmus students

The Spanish Minister of Education, José Ignacio Wert, said "sacrifice something more" this morning to families with more resources, for students with a more unfavorable economic situation to have access to Erasmus scholarships.

MINISTER OF EDUCATION

According to an order published in the Official Gazette of October 29, the new requirement for eligibility for the additional contribution of the Government in the 2013-2014 school year is to have a general scholarship the past year, which has caused reactions of both students and from different political parties.

The Minister explained that Spain is the EU country that sends more students abroad within the Erasmus mobility program in proportion to the total university population, which is the scale used in the EU to distribute aid among its members.While last year European support for Spanish students was 115 euros per month, Liechtenstein's was around 800 euros because there were fewer students in proportion to the Erasmus university population.

Wert has stated that his department depends on a budget "that has been cut significantly because we have prioritized general grants, which go to students with fewer resources."

The students abroad are faced with a new surprise: new Erasmus grants and restrictions to have access to them. This change has caused "outrage" among associations of students and those who are currently studying with a scholarship in Erasmus, as most are now "just learning" that they will not have the State funds to subsidize part of their stay abroad.

Mobilization on the Internet

The new restrictions for scholarships Erasmus has led to a mobilization on Twitter that has been filled with complaints and insults against the Government and Ignacio Wert. The hashtag #ErasmusRIP has become a trending topic in the last hours, gathering the opinions of students against what they generally consider a new assault against public education.

The Change.org platform has started to collect signatures against the government's decision that affects one of the most popular programs of the EU to facilitate the mobility of European students and communication between languages.

Angela Redondo Castellanos e Amanda Rotger Silva