The University CounselingResearch and Innovation has begun to analyze with the students represented in the Advisory Council of University Students of Andalusia (CAE) a possible reduction of the prices corresponding to the license plates masks. According to the Board itself, the general director of University Coordination, Lorenzo Salas, has held a new meeting with this body to begin working on possible courses of action, which would imply “a new advance” in the study support policy that applied by the regional Executive in order to guarantee access to higher education and equal opportunities. The Secretary General of Universities, Ramón Herrera, also participated in this meeting.
The objective pursued is to homogenize downwards the credit rates in the calls that involve a greater outlay for students, a measure that will be applied to both degrees and masters – qualifying or not – and doctorates and in those more expensive branches of education, which tend to be those of Engineering and Architecture, Experimental Sciences and Health Sciences.
The general director of University Coordination has highlighted that “this initiative would alleviate the disbursement that Andalusian families have to face to pay the credits that their children have to complete from the second registration, which are the ones that make the studies most expensive.”
In any case, since University Counseling The group of students has been reminded that the regional Executive has been applying for years a package of social actions that makes it possible, among other aspects, to keep public prices for academic and administrative services frozen. “Thanks to this, Andalusia is included among the three most affordable regions of the national university system, along with Galicia and the Canary Islands,” he added.
In accordance with this price freeze included in the latest decree approved last May, the credit for the degree and the qualifying master’s degree in first registration is established at 12.62 euros, after the equalization of amounts already applied in the current course to these postgraduate studies. In the case of non-qualifying master’s degrees it is 13.68 euros. In Andalusia, in cases of first or second enrollment, a single value is set regardless of the branch of knowledge to which the desired studies belong in order to not condition students for economic reasons when choosing the degree.
Discount of 99% of prices on first registration
On the other hand, the Board maintains the bonus of 99% of the cost of the credits approved in first registration, both in bachelor’s and master’s degrees, to all students who are not scholarship recipients from the Ministry and to scholarship recipients in the percentage not covered by that aid. To cover this program, the budget of the University Department has reserved an amount of 47 million in 2024.
Lorenzo Salas explained that, taking the last three years as a reference, students pass a very high percentage of the credits formalized for degrees and masters in their first registration, which is why they automatically obtain the discount on their price thanks to this mechanism, which is applies, regardless of income level and with the objective of encouraging effort and good academic results. “In practice, the majority of young people can study their degree by paying for the first course and a residual percentage of the credits that they do not pass in this first phase, in the case of the degree, and complete a master’s degree with a very reduced financial effort” , he remarked.
According to the analysis carried out by the Ministry, the Andalusian public universities registered in the academic years 2020/2021, 2021/2022 and 2022/2023, for the degree modality, a total of 9.15 million credits in first enrollment, of which 6.82 million, that is, 74.60 %, were approved by the students. For the master’s degrees, in that same period, a total of 1.17 million credits were registered during first registration, of which 964,814, 82%, had a satisfactory result for the students.
Fractional payment and exemption for the minimum vital income and Minimum Social Insertion Income
Apart from the freezing of rates and the bonus, aimed at ensuring that no student is forced to abandon their studies for economic reasons, the general director of University Coordination has stressed that there are other actions in force that have the same purpose. Among them, he has referred to the possibility of paying the amount of the lessons that are taken in installments in up to eight installments.
Furthermore, on an exceptional basis, the University Counseling It also authorizes public academic institutions to establish, on an individualized basis and in order to address the special circumstances presented by students, a different payment procedure, so that lack of payment does not imply automatic withdrawal of registration. In the case of families receiving the Minimum Living Income and Minimum Social Integration Income benefits, they are exempt.