Promises made to students for the next term

Translation: Victoria Bakshina

The thing on everyone's lips, since the elections are completed and the new government is in the making, is who will be the leader and what issues will be prioritized in the next term. The Student Paper got this off the ground and made a compilation of the issues concerning students, which the political parties have placed on their agenda for the next term of office.

This feature focuses solely on the issues relating to student interests directly. The summary is based on the program statements of the political parties, but is first and foremost shaped by the answers that we received from the party representatives to the question: What needs to be done for students in the next term?

The list is, of course, not finalized. The political parties may put more issues relating to students into their agenda.

The article is written a week after the parliamentary elections.

Program statements of the Independence Party concerning students

  • Increase diversity in the education system.

  • Independent schools should be treated equally.

  • The government assists all students on equal grounds, regardless of the legal form of the school.

  • Ensure access to digital higher education in Iceland.

  • Strengthen higher education throughout the country and ensure its quality.

  • Raise parental allowance to support students and parents outside of the labour market.

Program statements of the Progressive Party concerning students

  • Raise the minimal financial support for students.

  • Raise the  income threshold.

  • Ensure that the initiative will be utilized to increase the number of students in the fields with a shortage of skilled workers on the labour market and in unbalanced communities.

 

Program statements of the Left-Green Movement concerning students

  • Keep fees at a minimum to ensure equal access to higher education.

  • Decrease special tuition fees in art studies in higher education.

  • Continue to improve the financing of the university system and ensure that the universities can be powerhouses throughout the country.

  • Ensure a diverse higher education and multifarious additional studies.

  • Invest in research and innovation.

  • Evaluate the experience of the Icelandic Student Loan Fund and explore how changes in the system have ensured equal access to studies.

 

Program statements of the Social Democratic Alliance concerning students

  • Public funding of each university shall reach the average of the Nordic countries so that it is analogous to the international level.

  • Enhance the financial support system of students, housing system and student services within universities.

  • Ensure that the people of foreign origin with higher education can get their credentials evaluated. Likewise, the students with another mother tongue should be offered a diverse higher education in Iceland. Icelandic lessons shall also be offered to these students on all levels of education along with increased assistance in mother tongue acquisition.

  • Provide educational institutions with resources and professional support in order for them to become inclusive and easily accessible.

  • Increase the knowledge of teachers and students with education and retraining on inclusive teaching methods and specificity concerning disabled students.

  • Demand the development of university teaching methods and course evaluation.

  • Support the construction at the national level as a mutually beneficial intersection of the economy and educational institutions.

  • Continuously work on the construction of the Science City in the Vatnsmýri area in cooperation with the state, with the City of Reykjavik, the National Hospital, universities, student movements and knowledge-based companies.

  • Prevent the exploitation of the loan fund grant system by the wealthy at the expense of those who depend on a grant.

  • Fair support of domestic students and the ones that study abroad.

  • The part of study grant which is a loan should have a two-percent interest rate cap, the minimal study progress should include 18 ECTS-credits, universally the market interest rates on student loans should be denounced and further developed based on income indexing of the payment installments.

  • Raise the income threshold and ensure that it is consistent with the wage development in the country.

  • Compare the minimal amount of student loans with an average consumer standard of the Ministry of Welfare.

  • Ensure access to the unemployment insurance system.

  • Ensure secure housing and diverse supply on the housing market.

  • Be a leader on the municipal level, at least in construction, in cooperation with the labour movement and housing associations on behalf of students and senior citizens.

  • Increase the capital contribution to the construction and raise income and property ownership curves.

  • Continuously build traditional social housing, apartments for people with disabilities, and special housing strategies for the homeless.

  • Improve the accessibility and follow the new law on contribution to psychological services.

  • Improve access to psychological, social and analogous support in schools and promote further discussion and education on mental health.

 

Program statements of the People's Party concerning students

  • Provide students with the freedom to earn additional income without the reduction of a study loan.

  • Raise student loans.

 

Program statements of the Pirate Party concerning students

  • The student should be a focal point of the education system.

  • Increase the flexibility and freedom of action in the system.

  • Increase the focus on skills that will be useful in an automated society in the information age.

  • The Icelandic Student Loan Fund should be further developed as a grant system, rather than a loan system.

  • Raise the minimal financial support for students.

  • Begin work on recommendations for improving the loan fund system to be  presented at the revision of the law on the Icelandic Student Loan Fund, which will take place at the autumn session 2023.

  • Emphasis should be placed on further consultations with students when it comes to improving the loan fund system.

  • Abolish the income threshold, so that the income doesn’t have influence on a loan or grant.

  • Ensure that students can receive grants or loans all year round.

  • Ensure that students receive unemployment benefits.

  • Ensure that grants and student loans take into account actual circumstances of the students.

  • Undertake the housing construction in cooperation with Icelandic Student Services. 

  • Higher disbursement of the tax discount.

  • Higher grants.

  • Higher childcare allowance.

  • More flexible parental leave.

  • Increased emphasis on innovation.

  • Psychologists available on all levels of education.

  • Psychological help to be subsidized.

Program statements of the Reform Party concerning students

  • Compare the minimal financial support with the general cost of living provided by the Ministry of Social Affairs.

  • Abolish the income threshold.

  • Provide students with universally available monthly grants according to the Nordic model.

  • Assist students in completion of their studies and early entrance to the labour market.

  • Implement a mixed grant and loan system.

  • Applicants for international protection should be entitled to a student loan.

 

Program statements of the Centre Party concerning students

  • Ensure the equal status of students throughout the country.

  • Strengthen the industrial and technical studies.

  • Improve the position of boys in the education system by taking their needs into account.