Scholarship chaos – Thousands of students are waiting for their money in the canton of Zurich – News

It takes up to a year for scholarship applications to be processed. This makes the canton of Zurich the best of the best.

These are tough times for Jamila Gysin. The young woman is doing her master’s degree in environment and sustainability in Sweden. However, it is not her studies that worry Gysin, but her finances. “I currently have 9,000 francs in the account and I hope that I can still ration it so that it is enough.”

The money has to be enough before the canton of Zurich pays out scholarships. Gysin is entitled to the money, but she has to reckon with having to wait several more months.

Jamila Gysin is the same for many who live in the canton of Zurich and are studying or doing an apprenticeship. Thousands are still waiting for scholarships from last school year. The decision should actually be available at the beginning of the training year in autumn.

A survey by “10vor10+” among the cantons shows that nowhere else in Switzerland do students wait anywhere near as long for their scholarships as in the canton of Zurich. In Appenzell Innerrhoden and St. Gallen, for example, scholarship applications are answered within a few days.

Most of the other cantons need one to three months maximum processing time, only in Jura it is six months maximum. Zurich, on the other hand, is losing out – it currently takes up to a year for an application to be viewed there. The canton promised improvement some time ago, but the problems are not under control.

A reform that makes everything worse

André Woodtli heads the responsible office in the Zurich Department of Education. He says that the waiting times are due to a reform of the Zurich scholarship law. It led to new processes and significantly more applications in one fell swoop. “We made a serious mistake in preparation,” admits Woodtli. He and his team assumed that everything would go faster with the reform. “That was too optimistic.”

We made a fatal mistake.

The new reform came into force two years ago and the situation has not improved. According to Woodtli, the only effective measure to get the problem under control is to hire more staff. That takes time. “You won’t find anyone on the job market who can do that. You have to train people.”

Although the canton of Zurich has almost doubled its staff in the last two years, there is still little progress with the applications. And this despite the fact that the government councilor responsible, Silvia Steiner, director of education, promised improvement last winter – in parliament and also to the “NZZ”.

Legend:

André Woodtli from the Office for Youth and Career Counseling admits omissions in Zurich’s scholarship chaos, Education Director Silvia Steiner is covered.

Keystone/Ennio Leanza

She said: “By the end of the year at the latest, the processing times must be within the specified period”. In the canton of Zurich, that would actually be around two months. Nevertheless, the canton’s website read this week that applications received in October 2021 are currently being processed. Silvia Steiner herself does not want to comment on the circumstances of “10vor10” and refers to the head of the office Woodtli.

Between hope and financial worries

For students like Jamila Gysin, student life remains a financial tightrope walk. She can only hope that the canton of Zurich keeps its promise and massively reduces the processing time.

If this does not happen, the future is uncertain for many. Jamila Gysin also doesn’t know what to do if her account is empty. Her family definitely cannot support her.