Students stipend scheme commission

Abstract

This is a specialized report by Dr. Godfrey Baldacchino on Students stipend scheme commission. The student-worker and pupil-worker schemes met vicious criticism: they clamped down on access to University education; reduced the academic content of courses; introduced a rigid and mechanical form of graduate manpower planning which was difficult to work in any context, let alone in a small and open labour market which depends on flexibility. Nevertheless, the reforms did usher a change of perspective - and perhaps of culture - which survived the re-foundation of the University by the Nationalist Government, returned to power in 1987. The concept of waged students was maintained and the financial independence which it generated amongst a growing cohort of post-16 citizens was also politically and economically difficult to halt, let alone reverse.