University fees frozen and fee payment terms flexibilised for students affected by COVID-19

The Regional Department of Education, University and Research and the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB) have agreed on a set of measures to help alleviate the financial impact from the Coronavirus 2019 epidemic.

First, they have agreed to freeze public fees for providing academic services during the 2020-21 academic year for courses at the University of the Balearic Islands that lead to the award of official bachelor or master's degrees. It should be pointed out that first registration fees have remained at their current level since 2014, whilst those for bachelor programmes were reduced by 10% and those for master's programmes that certify or are a pre-requisite for holders to undertake regulated professional activities were cut by 15%.

Second, financial assistance will be provided for the 2020-21 academic year for students and will be the same amount as the cost of their cancelled registrations in the 2019-20 academic year due to the outbreak.

Moreover, PhD students who have not been able to submit their doctoral thesis and have to re-register will be able to do so at no cost and for a period equivalent to the duration of the state of emergency.

With regard to post-doc, pre-doc, research technician and CAIB call contracts that end in the 12 months following the introduction of the state of emergency will be automatically extended for three months.

Both institutions deem it essential for the Ministry of Universities to participate by allocating a specific budget that assures fairness and avoids more vulnerable students being penalised, as far as possible, due to the COVID-19 crisis situation.

Publication date: Wed May 06 13:14:00 CEST 2020