Won by the ÖH: The individual flight history of students can justify a longer duration of studies in the preliminary studies or a delayed start of the subsequent studies.
In a counseling session at the Social Department of the Austrian National Union of Students (ÖH), X, a student who has fled Syria and is eligible for asylum, is advised to apply for a study grant for his recently started Master’s program. He completed his bachelor’s degree 32 months before beginning his master’s degree in Syria. However, the Study Subsidies Act stipulates that entitlement to study subsidies for a master’s degree program exists only if the program was started no later than 30 months after the bachelor’s degree. The Social Welfare Department assists him with a statement on his application for student aid, which shows that he was unable to start his master’s degree program within the scheduled period for justified reasons related to his flight from Syria.
More than three months after his application, X receives a negative decision from the authority. The reason given for the rejection is that he would have exceeded the maximum allowable three tolerance semesters for the bachelor’s degree program by another two years and would therefore be ineligible for student aid. The Social Welfare Department assists in drafting an appeal against the negative decision and explains in detail that X’s graduation was severely delayed due to the unavoidable war situation and that it was impossible for him to graduate after only three tolerance semesters. Due to the permanent dangerous situation, the city’s infrastructure was severely limited and some exams and courses could not take place at all.
Another two months after the appeal was filed, the study grant authority finally grants him study grants for his master’s degree. He will receive more than € 7,500 in back-payments of unpaid study grants.
Won by the ÖH: The individual flight history of students can justify a longer duration of studies in the preliminary studies or a delayed start of the subsequent studies.
Further successes from consulting at www.oeh.ac.at/geschafft
