VENICE – Scholarships in the Veneto are at the center of a financial controversy that would have left almost 5,000 students without financial support. The Region is facing a deficit of 22 million euros, unable to guarantee the funds necessary to cover all those eligible. The situation, which emerged during the national days for the right to university education, highlights a chronic lack of funding by the region, which has only allocated 8 million euros, a clearly insufficient figure.
According to data provided by Democratic Party of Veneto, there are 4,750 eligible non-beneficiaries, while the University Union reports 5,318, with a hole in the regional budget that exceeds 22 million euros. The student protests were not long in coming, with demonstrations in Padua and requests for intervention from the council and the ministry.
The absence of adequate resources has led to growing student frustration, with numerous voices being raised to demand full coverage of scholarships. The regional councilor for education admitted the lack of funds, while the regional councilors of the Democratic Party underlined the urgent need to respect the right to study guaranteed by law.
The situation in Veneto becomes even worse when compared with neighboring regions such as Emilia Romagna, which allocates 43 million euros to scholarships every year. A structural problem is therefore highlighted which requires immediate and concrete solutions from the competent institutions. The students, in the meantime, continue to fight for their rights, asking for decisive intervention from the regional and national authorities.
This is the note. “Punctly, for years, we have raised the alarm to the Region about the fact that the failure to readjust the resources budgeted for scholarships was destined to create an almost unbridgeable gap between those entitled to it and economic coverage. And never before have the issues come home to roost like this year. Those 4,750 eligible students who are not beneficiaries for the current academic year in the Veneto universities, with a gap in resources equal to 22 million euros, demonstrate this unequivocally”. The picture of the situation comes from the group of regional councilors of the Veneto Democratic Party who held a press conference today in Padua. The group leader Vanessa Camani spoke, together with her colleagues Chiara Luisetto, Anna Maria Bigon, Andrea Zanoni. Also present were the representatives of the Young Democrats, Maria Grazia Roldo and Mattia Costantini. Camani firstly referred to the Constitution: “Article 34 establishes that capable deserving students, even if without means, have the right to reach the highest levels of studies. And that the Republic makes this right effective with scholarships, family allowances and other benefits that must be awarded through competition. Veneto actually does not respect these principles. And if national funds have grown in recent years from 162 million in 2012 to almost 308 million in 2023, at the same time the funding that the Region should provide remains at a standstill, at around 8 million per year.
Far too little, with the result that what has so far taken the chestnuts out of the fire have been the extraordinary and additional allocations, such as that of 11.2 million arrived at the end of 2023 by the Government, or the 500 million distributed on a national scale thanks to the Pnrr and of which Veneto also benefited.” “The problem is that this year – highlighted the parent company – there are 22 million to be recovered and with a budget that is practically blocked. All in a context of comparison between Regions that really makes one pale: Emilia-Romagna in fact allocates 43.5 million per year and this guarantees coverage for all those eligible to receive the scholarship. Here this doesn’t happen and we are always forced to leave thousands of students high and dry even though they are entitled to support.” An injustice, according to Luisetto and Bigon “which contributes to exaggerating the phenomenon of the growing loss of population living in Veneto, with truly worrying forecasts for the next few years. And which creates daily, psychological and even nutritional problems for many children forced to live their study experience in prohibitive conditions.” Zanoni for his part recalled that “those 22 million to be recovered for the scholarships correspond to the amount of resources that Sis, concessionaire of the Pedemontana Veneta, has unduly collected and which must be paid into the coffers of the Region, as established by the Court of Auditors. The council should impose the restitution of what is due to it, allocating it to such an important objective as the protection of the right to education”.
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