INTERVIEW
It was Thursday night in Amiens with Emmanuel Macron when he defended his report in front of students, ten days after one of their peer burned himself in Lyon. Guest of the Grand Journal of the evening , the Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation Frédérique Vidal seems to have heard the message of students and ensures that the system of awarding scholarships, criticized, "will be flattened at the very beginning of 2020 ".
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While 37.5% of French students are scholarship holders and 20% live below the poverty line, their minister refuses to proceed to a further increase in scholarships. On the other hand, what she agrees with the different student associations is that the way in which "these scholarships are awarded no longer corresponds to the reality of today". "For example, there is a part of the scale that is related to the distance to the parents' home, but you can live 50 meters from your family and be out of step with it. ", says the minister at the microphone of Europe 1.
"Better Distributed" and "More Students" Scholarships
Another point in the minister's viewfinder is the operation of the stock exchanges. "You can have a family that sees their income increase by 50 euros, and drop the purse of their student child," she says. "So it is really structurally that we must return to the scale of scholarships."
The minister hopes that these "new formula" grants will be ready "at the very beginning of the year 2020", and insists on the importance of this work of recasting while several student unions have called to join the national strike movement of the 5th. December. "Student aid is 5.7 billion euros, we need to be able to do a lot better: it is important that this money be better distributed, and more students."