Snapshots
What did we do?
- Fee regulations with a NO TAX AREA up to € 26 500
- GTT season ticket refund
What do we want to do?
- Reduce student contribution
- Extension of public transport refunds for daily commuter students
Full Programme
The greatest scourge of the Italian university is tuition fees, which are still a vexation for many of us. The process of making the Politecnico a public institution in every respect must go through a gradual reduction in student contributions, shifting the burden of the university and the university system onto general taxation. At the same time, the university’s role must be to enable the cultural development of the individualities that are formed within it, through welfare infrastructures that enable people to experience local areas, museums and culture.
WHAT HAVE WE DONE?
FEE REGULATION. FOR MANY IT IS TAKEN FOR GRANTED, BUT IF THE POLYTECHNIC HAS ONE OF THE MOST FAVOURABLE TAX REGIMES IN ITALY, IT IS THANKS TO THE WORK OF INDEPENDENT STUDENT REPRESENTATION!
In 2018 we tabled a motion that exempted as many as four thousand students from paying fees (excluding about €161 of regional tax). In the last year thanks to PNRR funds the national no tax area was raised. Having one of the most favourable taxation systems among Italian universities does not mean having solved accessibility to education. In 2020, in fact, we presented a second motion, which envisaged a significant lowering of the contribution for average ISEE, with progressive discounts up to 35/40,000€ of ISEE, without increasing taxation for the higher ISEE brackets. We believe that we must go further and further in reducing the student contribution, to truly achieve free university for all.
BANDING FOR PART-TIMERS
By allowing the reduction of the tuition fee based on ISEE and eliminating the credit cost, we have made an enrolment mode available to students in difficulty, allowing them to engage in study in the manner most congenial to them, particularly for working students.
GTT SEASON TICKET REIMBURSEMENT FOR ALL ISEE, AND ALSO FOR OFF-COURSE STUDENTS
In 2017, we requested and obtained the introduction of GTT season ticket reimbursement for ISEE bands up to 19. We managed to extend it both by income (in a progressive manner), and on reimbursable season tickets (any LPT), we managed to remove the constraint on years of registration! Unfortunately, cuts were also made by taking advantage of state bonuses on public transport, which undermined the amount reimbursed to many students, along with the (previous) reduction of the maximum reimbursable amount. We want to reverse this trend in order to take back the welfare we had won!
REDUCING FEES WITH MILLIONS FROM THE RELAUNCH DL, CANCELLING SUPER-INCREASES FOR LOW-INCOME OFF-COURSE STUDENTS
We have eliminated excessive fees for off-course students by eliminating increases of up to 400% and using structural funds to prevent people from having to drop out of university for financial reasons if they are off-course. This reduction is a major step forward on the road to educational accessibility, allowing people to attend university even beyond the legal duration of the course.
WHAT DO WE WANT TO DO?
SIMPLIFICATION AND RESTORATION OF WELFARE PROCEDURES
We aim to speed up the procedures for acquiring documentation, in order to ensure the reimbursement of GTT and Musei season tickets as early as the first teaching period. We also want the mobility package to return to cover all GTT season tickets, without percentages or reductions due to state bonuses.
STUDENT CONTRIBUTION REDUCTION
The continuation of everyone’s studies benefits the entire community, which is why we believe that education should not be financed with students’ taxes, but with the taxes of the entire citizenry (as is the case for the National Health Service and many other public services). In the meantime, we want an increase of the No-Tax area!
SUBSIDISED BANDING FOR DOUBLE DEGREE STUDENTS
With the overcoming of the constraint that prevented simultaneous enrolment in two degree courses, very costly scenarios are created at the level of student contributions that make this change applicable only to certain bands of students. We believe that the overcoming of a limit should be effective and not merely nominal, so that everyone should be able to benefit from this new didactic arrangement. This is why we propose that agreements be drawn up, at least with other Piedmontese universities, that reduce the amount owed by those who attend two degree courses at the same time, regardless of their economic level.
EXTENSION OF PUBLIC TRANSPORT REIMBURSEMENT FOR COMMUTING STUDENTS (TRENITALIA)
The Politecnico is a point of reference for higher technical education at a national but above all regional level. Many of us come from other cities in the Piedmont region and incur considerable expenses to be able to attend the university campus in Turin every day. In order to facilitate the use of sustainable means of transport, and to allow commuter students to attend at no extra cost, we want to add the possibility of reimbursement, for commuter students (resident in other cities in and around Piedmont), of Trenitalia season tickets.