Tip     Print     RSS     Del    

Student blockade over grant cuts

Published 16.02.09 12:17

Although state education payouts are at an all-time high students at Roskilde University are picketing against proposed cutsStudents at Roskilde University set up a blockade at the institution’s administrative offices this morning in protest against educational cuts proposed by the...

Students at Roskilde University set up a blockade at the institution’s administrative offices this morning in protest against educational cuts proposed by the Tax Commission, reported Berlingske Tidende newspaper.

The commission’s proposal to reduce students’ eligibility period for state financial assistance from six years to four has met with disapproval with university students across the country. But students at Roskilde University are the first to have taken action against the proposal.

The students began the blockade at 7:45 this morning but later dispersed, with hundreds of students gathering at a 9:30 meeting on the issue at the university cafeteria.

State student financial support is currently 5,177 kroner per month before tax, for students not living in the parental home. But according to Statistics Denmark, that figure is well above the amount of 3,907 kroner students received in 2000.

Seen in light of the inflation rate over the last eight-year period, students now receive 32 percent more money compared to an overall cost of living increase of 18 percent.

Comments?

The Copenhagen Post