Kela stops benefit of 3,500 higher students from Jan

The national social insurance institution- Kela has decided to stop financial supports of about 3,500 students as the academic progress of the students were not satisfactory, said Kela in a press release on Wednesday.

Kela assesses the academic progress of higher education students on a yearly basis. This autumn the academic progress of about 138,000 higher education students was monitored.

The financial support of about 3,500 students will be discontinued as of January because the student has not earned enough credits.

For about 1,900 of these students, the payments are stopped because they did not reply to the request for further information.

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.

Kela also sent letter to the students explaining what they can do to requalify for financial aid.

Students can requalify for financial aid if 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.