What I am writing about today goes against my personal interests. With two teenage children hopefully attending university in a few years’ time, having them receive stipends will certainly help the family budget. Another form of income, from wherever it comes, is always welcome.

But, in principle, I am totally against the idea of the government giving money to students to further their studies. Stipends may be an incentive for more and more students to take up university courses, but they are sending out the wrong message to the younger generations.

So, while agreeing that university courses should remain free of charge, like the rest of the education services provided by the government, the stipends should be phased out. A second option, less desirable than the first but a much better way than the system we have at present, is for the money to be paid back when the students graduate.

For one thing, the stipends are not being used for education purposes. They are being used as pocket money to spend on the weekend, maybe on alcohol and drugs, or to fill the fuel tank. They are not being used to buy books.

Just go to the university campus to see what I mean. Most students have their own car. And I, as a taxpayer, am paying for its maintenance. Visit Paceville at the weekend and you can see hundreds of university students spending their stipend on booze.

Recently, I was told that a woman called a radio show in which Education Minister Dolores Cristina was taking part to complain that her son or daughter was having a parking problem at the university every day. The minister replied that, if this was the biggest problem university students were facing, then everything else is fine.

But this complaint is indicative of the way stipends are being used. We are pampering our students, handing out money when they should be working for it, and ultimately giving them the wrong idea that life out there is easy.

Their counterparts abroad have a very different life. The great majority of foreign students have to move out of the family home to attend university, for which they have to pay through their noses, unless they have scholarships. This means that they have to find alternative accommodation, which they often share will fellow students to save on expenses. They do not have mummy and daddy preparing their lunch in the morning and dinner in the evening. When they are not studying, they are doing a part-time job in a restaurant or bar to earn a living to maintain themselves. They are learning to make sacrifices, working late hours and waking up early to study. They learn to live on their own, doing daily chores like shopping for food or cleaning their apartment. It is a hard life, but one that builds their character and personality, a period in their life they will find extremely beneficial when they grow up and have their own families.

Here in Malta, most university students live with their family; Gozitan students live in Malta during the week but return to the sister island at the weekend. They do not have to pay for their university courses, and their parents cover the day-to-day expenses. They get stipends, and the money can be spent on anything. The great majority of them do not feel the need to work part time. And, when they are not studying, they are spending their free time in clubs and bars – not washing plates or serving customers, but spending their stipend on beer and vodka. They have a car they use to drive the few miles to Tal-Qroqq. Mummy still does their bed every morning. And taxpayers are paying for their weekend entertainment, fuel and mobile phones.

The end result of all this is that the hundreds who graduate year after year are led to believe that life is easy. When they start working, they think that the degree they have entitles them to feel superior. Often, they find out the hard way that what they learnt in theory is totally different from what the practices are, and this comes as a shock for most of them. Often, they have become too accustomed to doing what they like, without having to discipline themselves and manage their time, that they cannot understand the rigid structures of a working environment. They are spoilt rotten, and stamp their feet if their superior draws their attention to something, or cry when they are reprimanded.

The elimination of the stipends system would go a long way to instil a sense of duty in our younger generation. It would teach them that nothing comes easy. It would make them stronger and more responsible adults. It would make them understand that they must contribute to society, and not just receive. It would make them realise that they must make sacrifices and be responsible. They are, after all, adults, no longer children. It is already enough that university courses are free of charge, a privilege foreign students do not enjoy.

As I wrote earlier, a second – less desirable – option would be to make the students pay back their stipends after they graduate. If we are to keep the stipends system going, then it is only fair that once the students graduate, they pay back society for helping them with their university course. It is quite unjust that people, through their taxes, pay for students to graduate and then, when they become lawyers, doctors and whatnot they charge their clients/patients exorbitant fees when it was these same clients/patients who paid for them to train for a profession.

The least that could be done, if stipends are to be kept, is that they are paid back after graduation.

But the best way forward is their outright elimination.

Let us stop the pampering.

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