Institutions do not exist to be preserved out of habit, nor to function as empty frameworks. They exist to serve a specific social purpose. When that purpose is distorted or effectively cancelled in practice, the institution itself is rendered void. In the debate surrounding student support, the real issue is not the existence of a body, but how it is managed and whom it truly serves.
By Marios Elias*
Economist, member of the Political Bureau of Democratic Rally and parliamentary candidate for Nicosia.
Institutions are not established for formality’s sake, nor to be sustained by inertia. They exist to fulfil a clear social role. When that role is altered or nullified in practice, the justification for the institution’s existence collapses.
In the name of supporting underprivileged students, some have chosen to play their own games. This is not simply misguided. It is unacceptable, indefensible and socially unethical. The instrumentalisation of need and poverty cannot and must not be tolerated in a society that claims to value fairness.
At the same time, student grants and family income criteria have remained unchanged for years, detached from social and economic reality. The cost of living continues to rise and financial pressure on families intensifies, yet state support remains frozen in the past. The result is a system that excludes students who genuinely need assistance and fails to deliver on the very purpose for which it was created.
Society does not need showcase bodies or mechanisms that operate without transparency and accountability. It needs institutions that meaningfully serve citizens and, in this case, students. It needs policies that respond to real social needs rather than ignoring them.
What is urgently required is an increase in student grants and a substantive revision of family income criteria, so that the circle of beneficiaries can expand and real support can reach those who truly need it. Not through rhetoric, but through concrete action.
Because when an institution ceases to serve its purpose, it ceases to serve society. And institutions that do not serve society have no reason to exist.