In a recent written enquiry, lawmaker Ron Lam revealed that certain postgraduate applicants for the tertiary education subsidy have been denied funding due to their non-current student status.
For reasons not explained, the government has merged the Postgraduate Grant into the Tertiary Education Subsidy. Lam noted that he had received complaints about the government’s failure to recognize the different natures of the two original grant schemes.
The original Postgraduate Grant welcomed “applicants who have registered for no less than three years as students in the Macau Special Administrative Region during their secondary to tertiary education.”
He interprets that as not barring non-current students.
The updated Tertiary Education Subsidy, however, requires applicants to be current secondary or tertiary education students, or those who have completed either of the education levels, having garnered distinctive academic results and having the desire to continue their education.
Lam highlighted the plight of a group of successful applicants who were stranded in Macau due to travel restrictions and now do not qualify for the scheme when they need to re-apply for the subsidy. Legally speaking, they are required to repay the government if they do not immediately commence their education following the receipt of funding
He also slammed the government for shrinking the scale of the grants due to the merger. The original scheme categorized the subsidy amounts for respective post-graduate studies levels. The new grants do not have a similar stipulation. However, it distinguishes between the location of studies.
Lam see this mess as opposite to the government’s core policy of prospering Macau through education and cultivating talents.
As such, the lawmaker asks the government for the figures for declined applications and the scale of downsizing of the grants. Moreover, he asks how the government will compensate the originally approved but later declined applicants due to its own administrative flaws. He also requests the government to explain its stand on education amid deduction in educational funding. AL
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