'Remove stipends, replace them with grants, scholarships': Andrew Azzopardi

University professor Andrew Azzopardi has called for university stipends to be replaced with targeted grants and scholarships.

The radio host and former dean of the social wellbeing faculty argued in a Facebook post that stipends, originally intended to remove financial barriers to higher education, are largely redundant and should be re-evaluated.

Students should be given a one-time grant at the beginning of the academic year and a ring-fenced grant, similar to those available to academics, for study-related expenses such as books, software, equipment or educational travel, he said. 

Azzopardi also suggested scholarships for students wishing to study abroad or at accredited non-state entities in courses that are not available locally.

He said the proposed alternatives to stipends would better reflect modern student needs and incentivise merit and academic investment.

'A lot has changed'

"A lot has changed since the stipends were introduced," Azzopardi wrote, expressing doubt that stipend payments remain the primary incentive for students to enrol.

The reality on campus, he observed, is that most students have jobs, supported by the growing trend of local businesses and authorities recruiting students from their first year of studies.

While acknowledging that this direct-to-work model has both positive and negative aspects, he said it is a system that leans heavily toward an apprenticeship model, suggesting a disconnect from the traditional full-time student experience.

Exploitation

Crucially, Azzopardi also highlighted the need to regulate student employment to prevent students from being "exploited or involved in the black market".

Given that "almost all students work," he said, they must be incentivised to take up work that is formally structured to collaborate with their programme of study and, crucially, does not harm their academic performance.

He suggested this would curb the practice of undeclared and unregulated employment, where students are not properly registered with government authorities and are paid entirely in cash without any contract or payslips.

Azzopardi's proposal may reignite a long-running discussion on whether Malta's often-controversial student stipend system is still fit for purpose.

Stipends, a unique feature of Malta's free higher education, were introduced in 1987.

Under the current system, eligible full-time students at post-secondary, vocational, and tertiary institutions receive a monthly stipend — paid every four weeks over ten months — alongside initial grants for books and equipment.

The rate varies depending on the course classification and is subject to the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) annually. Beyond COLA, however, a key increase to stipends occurred in the 2022 Budget, when the government announced a 10% increase while raising the part-time work limit for eligible students from 20 to 25 hours per week.