Pécs University botches student scholarships

Hundreds of students at the University of Pécs have received the wrong scholarships due to the introduction of ETR (Standard Education System), an electronic data management system for universities, writes hirszerzo.hu.

At some University of Pécs faculties, many students have received much larger or much lower scholarships than they had expected. The problem was caused by the introduction of a new electronic data management system that causes problems in several universities every year. Data, including grade point average used to be typed manually into the computer, but in the new system, GPA and scholarships are calculated electronically.

This mistake would not have caused a scandal in itself, but the university, instead of admitting the problem, apologizing for it and correcting it, sent threatening letters to those who received more scholarships than they were entitled to, claiming that the students used the money in bad faith, and demanding that they pay the money back in 30 days or they are not allowed to take their exams. Most of the students, on the other hand, as the National Students' Union defence repersentative Áron Égő pointed out, have already spent the money.

The letter is said to cite paragraphs of law incorrectly to justify its demands. Students' Union leader Gábor Szabó pointed out that the students would have used the money in bad faith only if they had have provided false data in their scholarship applications. Equally, denying them the opportunity to take exams would be legal only if they failed to pay tuition fees.

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