Financial aid payments stopped for 3 000 higher education students

In autumn 2021, more requests to provide further information were sent than last year. When monitoring the academic progress for the academic year 2019-2020, more lenient criteria concerning the required credits obtained were applied to all higher education students due to the coronavirus epidemic.

When monitoring the academic progress for the academic year 2020-2021, the more lenient criteria were no longer applied.If the coronavirus epidemic affected academic progress in the academic year 2020-2021, the student had to provide information about this in the reply to the request for further information.

For an estimated 3 000 students, the student financial aid will be discontinued as of January because the student has not earned enough credits. For about 1,700 of these students, the payments are stopped because they did not reply to the request for further information.

What can students do if financial aid payments are stopped?

If the financial aid payments have been stopped because the student forgot to reply to the request for further information, he or she can request a review of the cancellation decision.

These students are sent a decision letter explaining what they can do to requalify for financial aid. Students can requalify for financial aid when they, after the financial aid payments were stopped, have obtained at least the minimum number of credits required. Students can also be granted financial aid again if there is a valid reason for not completing the required number of credits. Valid reasons include for instance illness or other difficult personal circumstances.

The decision is also accompanied by information about other kinds of support available to students.