As part of the overall reform of student financial aid, the Government has decided to propose changing the student loan compensation for higher education students into a two-tier model. SAMOK is disappointed with the proposal. Although the amount of student loan compensation increases with the proposed changes, it is now being done in an unfair manner. The largest amounts of student loan are taken out by those students who have the most difficulty progressing in their studies within the target time.

“SAMOK’s message throughout the reform has been that it is critical to direct resources to the students in the most vulnerable positions. Now, the reform has chosen the complete opposite direction, where support is targeted at the period after graduation,” assesses Erica Alaluusua, SAMOK’s Adviser in Social Policy.

The proposed two-tier student loan compensation would mean that a student graduating within the target time would be entitled to a larger student loan compensation than a student graduating within the deadline that qualifies for the compensation. All students who do not have an acceptable reason for extending the deadline for the student loan compensation still remain excluded from the compensation.

“The tiered loan compensation is justified by its incentive effect, but the reform does not take into account at all those students who have not had an incentive to graduate within the target time or deadline before. This is the grievance regarding the loan compensation that should have been focused on,” Alaluusua continues.

SAMOK is disappointed with the weak overall result of the student financial aid reform. The most significant changes to student financial aid were made entirely outside the reform work, as the decision to increase the amount of the state guarantee for student loans and the transfer of students to the housing supplement of student financial aid was made before the reform work was completed.

“The financial position of students was already poor, and now it is even weaker. As a fix, students are being offered a miserable fix where the same groups of students continue to lose out,” states Helena Maijanen, President of the Board of SAMOK.

The proposal for the overall reform of student financial aid regarding all measures has not yet been published. SAMOK hopes that the reform will strengthen social justice and the financial position of higher education students during their studies. Regarding the proposed model, it is critically important that the conditions for extending the deadline for the student loan compensation are made more flexible.

More information:

Helena Maijanen
President of the board
050 389 1000
[email protected]

Erica Alaluusua
Senior advisor in social policy
040 773 1854
[email protected]