The Cabinet of Luxembourg's government has agreed changes to the eligibility criteria for students who live outside Luxembourg but whose parent(s) work in Luxembourg; this change has come about following a recent ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (C-410/18 of 10 July 2019).
The Cabinet endorsed the draft law (amending the amended law of 24 July 2014 on state financial assistance for higher education and the draft Grand-Ducal Regulation amending the amended Grand-Ducal Regulation of 27 August 2014) concerning state financial assistance for 3rd-level studies.
The court considered the current eligibility criteria as being too restrictive. At present, one of the parents of the non-resident student must have been employed or have had a professional activity in Luxembourg for a period of at least five years over a seven-year reference period calculated retroactively from the date of the application for financial assistance.
The amended bill proposes to extend the current eligibility criteria for non-resident students, children of non-resident workers, to be able to avail of financial assistance for higher education, by detailing three levels of eligibility:
1) his / her parent must have worked in Luxembourg for at least five years accumulated during a reference period of ten years from the date of the application; or
2) his / her parent must have worked in Luxembourg for a cumulative period of at least ten years at the time of the student's request for financial assistance for higher studies; or
3) the student will have either attended, for a minimum cumulative period of five years of study, primary education, secondary education or initial vocational training (in a public or private institution located in Luxembourg or a programme recognised as belonging to the Luxembourg higher education system), having spent at least five years in Luxembourg.
Note - for these criteria allowing the student to establish him/herself a connection with Luxembourg, it is sufficient that the non-resident worker is affiliated at the time of the application.
With the introduction of the new criteria, the real and effective link to the country can be understood more broadly, thus making it possible to identify in several ways the probability of a graduate student returning to the Luxembourg labour market.
The components of financial aid for higher education remain the loan and the grant, the latter being divided into different categories: basic scholarship, mobility scholarship, social criteria scholarship and family scholarship. The loan and the basic grant may be increased following consideration of registration fees.