In the proposal, we are taking the initiative to remove bureaucratic complexity in the awarding of scholarships by the Public Scholarship, Development, Disability and Maintenance Fund of the Republic of Slovenia.
We have had many cases of students who have been affected by the above-mentioned delay in the awarding of scholarships. For example, in 2016, our PhD student in Ecotechnology applied for the Ad future scholarship for students from the Western Balkan countries. In the meantime, she was not allowed to be employed or registered as unemployed and did not know whether she would be able to financially survive her studies. She waited another three months and did not receive the notification of the scholarship award until 3 January the following year, when it was delivered by post on 29 December 2016. This delay had a very negative impact on her studies during that period, almost the entire first semester.

The other applicants registered in 2016 had the same problem, as they all received the notification of the scholarship only after 29.12.2016, three months after the start of the academic year.

In 2017, the situation was similar. We had two students enrolled in the Information and Communication Technologies programme, the decision to grant the scholarship was also delayed and the consequences for both students were similar to the one described above. Other students of ours in recent years have also experienced the same problems, some even considering giving up their scholarships and discontinuing their studies. We were able to persuade them to wait, but they were left with a bad impression which could have been avoided by speeding up the procedures.

We are aware of the need to treat all registered students equally and to wait for them to enrol.  But this cannot be an excuse for delaying the decision, because according to the Higher Education Act, enrolment must be completed in September so that the scholarship award process can be completed in October and no one is discriminated against.

Therefore, as a solution, we propose to amend the Law on Fast Track Scholarships and to modify the instructions to the implementing bodies for the implementation of such procedures, so that:
Such calls for tenders from public organisations include a provision that the applicant must indicate a working method of electronic delivery when applying, so that the decision-making process saves 16 days that would otherwise be lost waiting for applicants to pick up a registered invitation to complete their application.Such calls for tenders would allow for the creation of a priority list of selected candidates from which scholarships are awarded in order until the funds are exhausted. The current call for applications, in the event that one of the selected candidates withdraws from the scholarship after the scholarship decision has been issued, the funds earmarked for that candidate are returned to the budget, rather than allowing the scholarship to be awarded to the next candidate on the priority list, as is possible, for example, in the case of the allocation of rooms in the Ljubljana Student Residence.Simplification of the procedures in the Administrative Procedure Act, so that communication with the applicants and the selected candidates could be faster, would also be very useful.