A number of recipients of the Endeavour Scholarships Scheme have been waiting up to seven months to receive the first instalment of their scholarship funding since they started their course, a delay they say is impacting them personally and academically.
Partly financed by the EU, the Endeavour Scholarships Scheme, run by the Education Ministry, supports tertiary education at a Master’s and PhD level. It aims to ensure the Maltese labour market is supplied with the right individuals to place it in a better position to compete internationally.
Based on the last scheme, students are eligible for up to €12,000. That sum is given to full-time students in a foreign university who need to receive 120 academic credits. The scholarship payments directly correlate with the number of academic credits (ECTS) the awardee receives throughout their course.
The students’ initial payment can cover up to 30% of the total credits they need to achieve throughout their course. This means awardees have to foot the entire costs, which can climb to several thousands of euros.
One recipient who waited seven months to receive funding from the start of the course said the wait caused “a constant and daily financial stress” even though she worked since the age of 16 to fund her dream course.
The scholarship began in 2015 when full-time students’ tuition fees/bench fees were initially paid to the awardee at the start of their academic year.
The delays affected me both personally and professionally- student science researcher
However, in 2021 awardees were told to expect initial payments in January, in what could be an awardee’s second semester. In 2022 and 2023, students were told to expect initial payments in February.
Some students started receiving their initial funding during the last week of March, while one student received his at the end of April. This was two months after they were told they would receive their initial payment and more than seven months after they began their course.
Students said they could not rely on the scholarship due to the long waiting times unless there was some form of financial aid.
Some students complained that their course credits were not equally distributed throughout their academic year leaving them without funding. One recipient only received the initial payment while they were carrying out their course.
“The rest of the payments were only given once the Master’s was completed, and, at that point, it was too late for me to use any of it,” said one student.
The student is a science researcher and had to pay for her own lab equipment above and beyond her tuition fees. She said: “I feel that, due to the long delays in funding, I didn’t receive sufficient help with furthering my education. The way the Endeavour funding is being rolled out makes it difficult for people who don’t come from a privileged background or those who do not necessarily have any financial help to be able to access further education. The delays affected me both personally and professionally.”
Questions were sent to the Education Ministry.