“The Agency back in the eye of the storm after the video about corruption”
“Student grants are being cut”
These headlines appeared in local media in recent days and, at first glance, may not seem connected. In reality, however, they describe the same problem from two different perspectives: the withdrawal of the state from student welfare and the outsourcing of social needs outside public policy.
The Social Support Body was created for a clear purpose: to assist students in need. That purpose is not in question. The problem arises when a social support agency is called upon, in practice, to replace the welfare state. When government policy falls short, the gap is filled elsewhere. At that point, support ceases to be a right and becomes a mechanism for managing need.
In the controversial video, the Agency is not presented as a mechanism for supporting students but as an institution with prestige, weight, and communicative value. As something that “counts” in a discussion of power and access. It is precisely here that concerns about exploitation arise: when the needs of students appear to acquire value not as a social issue but as a means.
In this context, the figures from the Audit Office take on particular significance. According to these, until 2022 the Agency’s revenues and expenditures were around €500,000 per year. In 2023 and 2024, revenues soared to approximately €2.5 million, an increase of roughly 500 per cent. At the same time, the Audit Office recorded cases of contributions from companies dealing with the public sector, from industries subject to government decisions, and from individuals linked to the Cyprus Investment Programme, in other words “golden” passports. These figures provide a reasonable basis for concern, especially when considered alongside the content of the controversial video.
Here lies the major contradiction. At the very same time that the resources of the Social Support Agency are rising rapidly, the state is doing nothing substantial for students.
Student grants are effectively being reduced, leaving thousands of young people with a minimum of €500 per year for the cost of living allowance. The student scholarship has remained frozen for years at around €1,500 per year, an amount that does not reflect the current cost of living. The air travel allowance remains at €300. No adjustment, no serious policy decision.
The situation regarding student accommodation is infuriating. Rents are soaring, while the University of Cyprus, the largest state academic institution, the jewel of academic education in Cyprus, with over 5,000 students, hundreds of researchers, and internationally recognised work, provides only 208 beds in student halls of residence. The needs have been well known for years, as have the delays. Yet the projects stall, the processes drag, and thousands of students are left every year at the mercy of the rental market.
The issue, therefore, is not that there is a Social Support Agency. The issue is that the needs of students now seem to operate in a space where money, prestige, and access coexist. And this would not happen if the state had fully assumed its responsibility. As student welfare remains insufficient, the needs of young people will increasingly be managed by third parties. And as this continues, social policy will move further away from its core: protecting those who are truly in need.