The CEDIES-administered grant and loan scheme for third-level students is being revised with specific changes to come into force for the 2018-19 academic year.
Back in December 2015, Luxembourg's Minister for Higher Education and Research, Mark Hansen, met with representatives of the ACEL (Association des Cercles d’Etudiants Luxemourg) and discussed adaptations of the system of state financial aid for higher education.
The agreed-upon package provides substantial raises of (up to) a 26.7% increase regarding the social grant component and a 22.5% increase for the mobility grant component. These measures aim to enhance the elements of the social selectivity in the current system of financial aid and to alleviate the difficulties faced by students to finance their accommodation costs when studying abroad.
In recent weeks, during the preparation of the draft Law amending the Law of 24 July 2014 on State financial assistance for higher education, Minister Hansen met with representatives of the OGB-L trade union several times to review the proposed changes.
The outcome of these changes was an agreement to introduce a grant indexation system from August 2017 to cater for the evolution of wages, i.e. to be means-tested. Once the system is set up, the amounts of the grants will be proportionately adjusted with effect for the academic year following that in which wages were adjusted. If necessary, a first adaptation could therefore take place at the earliest for the 2018/2019 academic year.
Photo by MESR (L-R: André Roeltgen, OGBL; Marc Hansen, Delegate Minister of Higher Education and Research)
