There are university students with “more than one job to be able to cope with expenses,” and being a displaced student “ends up being a great difficulty.” We spoke with the President of the Academic Association of the University of Lisbon (AAUL), Mariana Barbosa, after a recently published study revealed that a university student spends, on average, 900 euros to pay for expenses. She mentioned that it is in food and extracurricular activities where students save the most.
“Being a displaced student ends up being a great difficulty,” emphasized Mariana Barbosa, noting that there are “non-displaced scholarship students who also face several limitations” and who “sometimes have to work and have more than one job to be able to cope with expenses.”
Working and studying at the same time makes it difficult to “reconcile academic and professional life,” leading students to not be able to “have the academic performance they would like.”
Food and activities are where most savings occur
The AAUL president said that it is in food that students try to save the most. “A study came out a while ago showing that displaced students don’t eat well and that the closer they get to the end of the month, the worse they eat,” she stated.
It is also extracurricular activities, such as volunteering, sports, and academic and cultural groups, that students deprive themselves of the most, since, in some cases, “they may have related costs.” Mariana Barbosa emphasized that these experiences “are points that are extremely important for the student’s journey and for their experience in higher education.”
“We are training professionals, not just learning machines,” she stated.
“Higher education should be a social elevator, it should be accessible to all students, and all social support should be able to cope with their expenses,” said Mariana Barbosa.
Study grant is insufficient
The AAUL president said that the study grant “barely covers more than the monthly tuition fee,” although in “its definition, the grant would be, at its base, for accommodation, transportation, food, and tuition.”
“A student who receives the monthly grant can pay the tuition, but then can’t have meals in a social canteen for more than a week and a half when it should be for the whole month,” she stated.
University choice conditioned
Mariana Barbosa mentioned that when choosing the university where they would like to be placed, many students end up choosing a “location where they can afford the expenses.”
For the AAUL president, a student being placed where “the family can afford the expenses” and not where “the student wants to see their academic experience rewarded manipulates the mission of higher education.”
It should be noted that a study conducted by Iscte revealed that studying in higher education costs each student an average of 903.90 euros monthly, with “cost of living” being the main responsible for students’ expenses. According to the data released, it is in accommodation, food, and transportation that students spend the most.
Studying in Higher Education costs an average of 900 € per month for each student
