On January 26, another meeting of the Presidential Council for Youth Affairs, operating within the National Development Council, was held. This time, the Council, together with invited experts and representatives of student and doctoral self-government, analyzed the issue of the need to increase the amount of social grants or related mechanisms when amending the Law on Higher Education.
First of all, it should be noted a certain thoroughness of the present topic in light of the current law. Well, the number and total amount of social scholarships awarded also determines other scholarship expenses of universities (e.g., rector’s scholarships for the best students). In addition, one of the major disadvantages of the system, which limits the targeted support of social scholarships, is the dependence of the benefit on the not entirely adequate and rather outdated indicators established in the decree of the Minister of Family and Social Policy. Instead, a far better idea, which academic circles have been talking about for years, is to tie this benefit to the amount of the minimum salary in a given fiscal year.
On the subject of the above, Student Parliament Chairman Kewin Lewicki noted that “the system of social benefits at higher education institutions in Poland honors people from families with many children, or from those in which one of the family members – the father or mother – is missing.” He also noted, under current law, “the net salary per person in the family cannot exceed PLN 1294, so if it is a family of 3-4 people and two people earn the lowest national salary, they already exceed this threshold.
As for the amount of stipends, this time for doctoral students, the chairman of the National Representation of Doctoral Students, Michal Klimczyk, also said that : , “if the situation does not change, it will become increasingly difficult to replace academic staff and encourage young scientists to stay at universities. The prescription for this problem, however, is to be: , “to condition the amount of the doctoral stipend in such a way that it is not lower than the minimum salary before the mid-term evaluation and not lower than the average salary after the mid-term evaluation.
Later in the discussion, the meeting participants also commented on other issues related to the scholarship aspect of the university, postulating, among other things, that the rector’s stipend should take into account the student’s social activities and activities, or that the increase in scholarship benefits should be linked to the increase in inflation.
More information can be found at: https://www.prezydent.pl/aktualnosci/narodowa-rada-rozwoju/aktualnosci/rada-ds-mlodziezy-potrzebny-jest-wzrost-stypendiow-socjalnych-dla-studentow-i-doktorantow,63947.