The Graffitti Movement's University and Junior College Branch said it disagreed with any change in the stipend system that would adversely affect university and junior college students. It said the movement had played a major role in the 1997 protests against the introduction of a new stipend system based on loans.

Graffitti said it believed that a reduction of public expenditure on education, including stipends, may be detrimental to society, especially when one considered that the percentage of students who continued their studies at a post secondary level was one of the lowest in the EU.