I feel insulted with this gesture.

Individual students will not miss the €16 a year but the sum total of their donations will make a difference to the charity concerned. Government would also get the message it deserves.

What he said.

Though I do appreciate that DCG’s point is the fact that the raise is a gimmick.

What are the students going to say? Make it €x? Who is there suggesting the tangible figure, why it’s necessary or not necessary and making sounds about it?

I would suggest proposing €x for “x” reasons or stuff it. It’s a joke. It’s humiliating. Just don’t sit there and take it because the loud-mouthed, brash, no value Socialists amongst you for some illogical reason think it’s great and wouldn’t dare insult their great leader by thinking or stating otherwise.

I really do see the point of stipends for a country that seeks to develop its only resource i.e. human resources. However, even when, as a student, I needed more cash, I made the time to find a part-time job and I flipped burgers or waited tables.

My first car was a third-hand one and I paid for it myself.

As a student, I did not live a life of luxury or constant partying, but made sure that every cent counted. My studies progressed, and remained unaffected by a few hours of part-time work per week. And, in summer, I made sure to find a summer job or two that would help me into the next year.

My point is that being a hardworking so and so, I could have just about survived without a stipend in the very same way that other students, across Europe do, even though these are sometimes faced by the odds of financing their own university education.

So whereas Malta still has free university for all, and students are still in receipt of a stipend, I feel that complaints about any increase, no matter how insignificant or politically charged this may be, are unjustified.

Whereas I do not advocate the removal of the stipend system, because for Malta, it is a means that justifies the end, I remind students that they still have it easy compared to foreign students who need to pay for their tuition and who certainly don’t get paid unless they apply for and receive a grant. This cappuccino is just complimentary with the otherwise free tertiary education.

A bit more than €1.34 in actual fact, since stipends aren’t issued during the months of October and November, and two are issued at the end of December. €1.60 a month, a pittance nonetheless, but I could’ve turned out far worse I suppose.

I’m a student as well, and while I’m grateful that it was a raise, and not the opposite, as one would’ve expected, €16 a year divided by 12 months gives roughly €1.34; a real pittance that’s going to cost the country a small fortune. I guess they didn’t find a hofra in the country’s finances this time around.

I never expected anything better.

Il-qahba milli jkollha ttik.