Increased accommodation support for scholarship students already exists.

The new living support amounts for scholarship students, which increase by an additional €1,300 per year, came into force today and apply to all applications submitted from the start of the current academic year.

The Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education (MCTES) has decided to strengthen the additional accommodation support intended for higher education students who study away from home, with an order defining the new values ​​to be published today in the Diário da República.

The increase could be up to an additional 38% of the support currently provided, representing an increase in annual support for non-domiciled students “from €240.20 to €1,321.21”, the diploma states.

Students will now receive between €2,642 and €5,020 per year, depending on the region where they study, as the new premiums are “in line with the average price of private housing practiced in different cities across the country and reported by the Student Accommodation Observatory in September 2023.”

The highest values ​​are for students displaced in the municipalities of Lisbon, Cascais and Oeiras, whose supplement can now reach 456.41 euros per month, followed by Porto (432.39 euros) and Sintra and Almada (384.34 euros) . According to the annex to the order, the minimum cost determined for resettled scholarship holders is 264.24 euros.

Changes to the regulations come into force from the current academic year, including applying “to all requests already submitted on the day of their entry into force.”

In recent years, student associations at various universities across the country have highlighted rising tuition costs, warning of numerous cases of students dropping out or choosing courses closer to home.

In response, MCTES introduced several measures to strengthen social support: the range of student scholarships was expanded, the amounts of scholarships and additional payments were increased, and new forms of support were created to take into account student workers, as well as refugees or those who choose. study in regions with low demographic density.

This is the fourth increase in the accommodation allowance in the last year alone, with an increase to be approved in August 2022, another in December 2022 and then in July 2023.

Thus, from 2022, the accommodation premium “has increased by 17–63%, clearly exceeding the dynamics recorded in the prices of private housing that students have to pay,” the order signed by the Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education emphasizes. Education, Elvira Fortunato.

Taking into account the shortage of housing for students at controlled prices, the previous Minister responsible for Higher Education, Manuel Heitor, launched the National Plan for Accommodation in Higher Education Institutions, which envisages an increase in the number of beds from 15,073 to 26,772 between 2021 and 2026 .

“However, the full implementation of the National Adjustment Plan in Higher Education requires its time associated with the development of 131 funded projects, therefore, pending its full completion, the Government has taken measures to mitigate the problem of placement in the short term,” the order said.