Fair and Righteous Scholarships: A Victory in History

Fair and Righteous Scholarships: A Victory in History
By Jordan Vargas – President of the Federación de Estudiantes de 
la Universidad de Costa Rica
Translated by J.Porras.

University of Costa Rica’s student population celebrated a remarkable victory that adds to its history, on March 9, when the first academic term of 2015 began. This historical event deals with the enforcement of the new Reglamento de Becas, which improves the academic performance, students engagement and rates of successful completion of study programs upon graduation for those students who face socio-economic disadvantages.

This achievement, which includes- among other aspects, the elimination of the mandatory working hours for those students granted with a scholarship, result from the hard work carried out by diverse student organizations during a long process that can be traced back to 2009. During a student’s assembly, many students brought up what has been a concerning topic from previous generations. As with every accomplished goal led by students within our alma mater and at a global level, the process has not been easy at all.

To the date, after a year and seven months that these new regulations had been approved, we find ourselves in the process of enforcing an amendment to correct several mistakes found in the current regulation. These corrections become apparent mainly in one of the new statements,  which indicates that scholarships will apply to every major the student is enrolled in, instead of only one major as it was previously established. This is the main modification that we nowadays celebrate, the positive change that carries the new reading of the text.

The Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Costa Rica’s board (FEUCR) firmly supports the reform, which not only represents a formal advance which increases the amount of money assigned to socio-economic aid and the institutionalization of scholarships due extreme poverty, but it also means a step forward in the struggle to make scholarships be considered a right for all students and not a benefit. Nevertheless, a series of challenges in the university’s scholarships’ system prevail despite of the great advances of the reform that will soon become current.

It is necessary to undergo a revision of the economic indicators in which the scholarship classification works with, as well as to improve complementary benefits such as alimentation, transportation, and students’ material expenses. Other aspects that requires improvement are the rethinking of the academic rewards’ rating system such as academic performance, mechanisms to follow-up students granted with scholarships, the distribution of rooms in the students’ residences, among others.All of these challenges are the base grounds of FEUCR’s work, especially in terms of scholarships, during this year, we will keep as main goals the enhancement of college and student life.

The lesson learned from this victory that we celebrate today is that in order to drive the necessary structural changes, both inside and outside our school, we require an informed, united student community that is willing to fight.