his year more than 2,400 freshmen did not receive the scholarship they were eligible for. How did it get to this?

The causes are many and inextricably interconnected: the increase in the number of students eligible for a scholarship and in the amount of the scholarship itself, which was decided by the Italian Government, was not followed by an effective increase in the public funds allocated for scholarships.

For years the Region has not provided enough funds to provide all eligible students with the scholarships they are entitled to, but for some time UniPd managed to cover the missing amount of money to guarantee all eligible students their scholarship.

This year, however, for the reasons presented above, the funds allocated by UniPd were simply not enough to cover for all eligible but not beneficiary students, thus more than 2,400 freshmen were excluded from scholarships.

The criterion with which the actual beneficiaries were selected among freshmen remains unknown. In particular, it does not seem like income was taken into account to make such selection, which we consider on the contrary fundamental: students more in need of financial help to continue their studies should have the highest priority.

The Region should intervene by fully funding scholarships for the eligible students. 

The University should clarify the criterion used to select beneficiaries and, above all, make a further effort to guarantee immediate support to students in financial troubles.