Following a meeting held at our offices with approximately 25 students whose applications for discretionary funding in order to further their studies have been rejected, Together Gibraltar is firm in its resolve to continue making representations to Government on behalf of this collective.

A window for new applications under the Discretionary Award process was opened between the 18th June and the 14th July 2021, with students being informed at the time that their applications would be considered once this deadline had passed and that, given that submitting an application via the discretionary process would not guarantee future funding, students should not enter into financial commitments before receiving confirmation that their application had been successful.

However, it took the panel in charge of awarding or rejecting these applications six weeks from the deadline to respond to these applications, leaving students waiting until a mere handful of days before the start of the new academic year. This has meant that many of the applicants, in order to ensure that their places on their courses of choice were not lost, or that they did not find themselves without accommodation when they left to commence their studies, were forced to take the risk and front payments in the hope that their application would be successful. It has also meant that that at this late stage, other alternative bursary schemes like the John Macintosh or Kusuma Trust are practically unviable alternatives.

Together Gibraltar is not suggesting that the Department of Education, and the Government of Gibraltar, should have an obligation to guarantee grants to all applicants who seek one under a discretionary process; we understand the principles underlying the discretionary process and it would be disingenuous of Government to imply that we are arguing that all applications should have been successful.

What we are, however, suggesting is that the handling of the application process has not been efficient, agile or transparent enough. Students wishing to further their studies simply cannot be expected to wait until the end of August to find out whether they are leaving to live and study in another country in a few days or weeks’ time. Those students have therefore had to, understandably, take a leap of faith and make certain payments in order to ensure that they can further their studies, without the guarantee that they will be reimbursed by Government.  

Together Gibraltar proposes that Government reach a compromise with the students who have found themselves in this position by providing them with zero-interest loan facilities instead of grants given that they now find themselves with financial commitments that arise solely because the discretionary award applications were not processed in a timely manner.

Together Gibraltar also, again, requests that Government publish the criteria used in order to reject or accept discretionary awards. Although we are aware that Government claims that priority is given to applicants who have already commenced a career path and who require an additional qualification in order to complete their studies, or to applicants who wish to study courses that Government deems to be in the interest of Gibraltar, Together Gibraltar has concerns about the subjectivity involved in the discretionary model, which is by its very nature open to abuse.

We therefore call for Government, in the interests of transparency and without reference to individuals, to make public a list of all applications that have been approved for funding and all applications that have been rejected, including the basis on which the decision was made.

It is important to remember that students have been very harshly hit by the Covid crisis worldwide, having had their studies disrupted and in many cases suffering academic disadvantages as a result. However, students in Gibraltar are determined to make a success of their future and deserve all the support and advice they can get at this moment. Now is not the time to cut spending on education, but to ensure that burgeoning careers are not stunted after so many years of hard work and public investment.