Students Studying Away from Home to Receive an Additional 200 Euros Next Academic Year

Students from modest families who move to another city to attend secondary school or university will receive an additional 200 euros next academic year to offset the significant increase in accommodation costs. The Government plans to increase the residence allowance by this amount, raising the fixed contribution that 105,000 students studying away from home receive in their scholarships from the current 2,500 euros to 2,700 euros.

The increase is included in the draft royal decree regulating scholarships for the 2025-2026 academic year, prepared by the Ministries of Education and Science. The document does not alter the income thresholds that qualify for a scholarship but introduces other improvements for students in higher artistic education, for university students with moderate disabilities, and maintains the 400-euro subsidy for students with special educational needs for another year. Education expects the number of scholarship recipients to reach one million next year, with the study aid budget exceeding 2.54 billion euros, a 73% increase since 2018.

All students pursuing post-compulsory education (Baccalaureate, intermediate and higher vocational training, or artistic education), basic vocational training, or university studies from the lowest income levels, thresholds 1 and 2, will be eligible for the increased aid for displaced students.

With the modification, scholarships for the next academic year will be as follows. Students in threshold 1, the poorest, will receive a fixed amount of 1,700 euros, an excellence-related amount (between 50 and 125 euros) if they have an average grade above 8, and a variable amount (not less than 60 euros), in addition to free tuition. This group includes, for example, households of four members with incomes below 23,286 euros.

Those in threshold 2 (up to 38,242 euros for four members) are not entitled to a fixed amount but do receive a basic aid of 300 euros (350 in basic vocational training), free tuition, and also the excellence aid and the variable amount. Students in thresholds 1 and 2 studying in a city other than their own will receive the 2,700-euro residence aid. Those not exceeding the threshold 3 limit, 42,836 euros for four members, will have free tuition, basic aid, and excellence aid.

This is the second increase in the residence allowance in just two years, as the Government already raised it by 900 euros in the 2023-24 scholarships, from 1,600 euros to 2,500 euros.

The future royal decree establishes the complete equivalence of higher artistic education students with university students for scholarship purposes, "which will allow them to be entitled to the tuition scholarship," according to the document.

The third significant change in the draft will allow university or higher artistic education students with a disability between 25% and 65% and eligible for a scholarship, about 1,200, to receive 25% more aid in each of the non-variable amounts (fixed, displacement, and excellence). This reform aims to extend to students with moderate disabilities a bonus already available to university students with severe limitations, over 65%, who receive 50% more scholarship. The measure continues an improvement initiated in the current academic year when the Government expanded aid and subsidies for non-university students with special educational needs by lowering the disability requirement from over 33% to 25%.

The Ministry of Education will also maintain next year's 400-euro subsidy, created in 2023 as an extraordinary measure to help families of all non-university students with specific educational support needs, providing relief to nearly 250,000 households against the rising cost of living.

This universal subsidy will be received by all students in this situation regardless of their family's income. The grant is available to students from the second cycle of Infant to Baccalaureate or vocational training. It is aimed at those with disabilities, severe behavioral or language disorders, autism spectrum disorders, or high intellectual abilities.

This universal subsidy is independent of the aid that many of these same students with specific needs, particularly those from modest and large families, may receive to cover part of the costs of transportation, meals, school supplies, residence, or educational reinforcement.

Finally, the draft introduces several updates and modifications to the royal decree that has governed the basic characteristics of the Spanish state scholarship system for study since 2007. It incorporates changes required by the law on artistic education; indicates that possible exclusions regarding the definition of the wealth threshold related to deposit interest and the balance of capital gains and losses will be set in each annual decree; and provides a new wording for the requirements in aid calls with a predetermined number of beneficiaries, allowing prioritization of economic or academic criteria and other circumstances such as belonging to certain disadvantaged groups (victims of gender violence, terrorism victims, foster care cases, etc.).

The royal decree, finally, consolidates the improvements in study aid introduced by the Government over the past five years. The implementation of the scholarship as a right (achieved with a simple 5), the 100-euro increase in the fixed amount, the 50-euro increase in the base scholarship for Basic Vocational Training, or the increase in the residence amount, among others.