The Ministry of Economy, Knowledge, Business and University has published in the Official Gazette of the Board of Andalucía (BOJA) the order of bases that includes the new regulation to apply the bonus for academic performance to students of the National University of Distance Education (UNED) attached to the associated centers of the autonomous community. This rule does not imply any change in the award criteria or in the amounts of the aid aimed at these students, who will continue to benefit as before, and under the same conditions of the students of Andalusian public universities, the discount of 99% of the cost of the subjects approved in the first enrollment.
People enrolled in the UNED, who meet the requirements, take advantage of these deductions from the 2018/2019 academic year, in accordance with the provisions of the corresponding decree of public prices that governs that school year. This school year about 3,000 students have been welcomed. That decree indicated that the Junta de Andalucía would take the necessary actions to enable, within the framework of the legal system, that these discounts were also extended to that academic institution. Since that course and thanks to the collaboration between the Ministry of Economy and the UNED, the students of their affiliated centers in Andalusia have been able to take advantage of the bonus at the beginning of each course.
In order to achieve an effective and efficient management model and to achieve the maximum impact of the aid, the Ministry of Economy has now approved the new procedure that should govern this bonus, which is specified in a call for aid to study under the non-competitive attendance to people who are studying undergraduate and master's degrees at said academic institution. According to the basic order, the request for this incentive will be presented through the UNED, which will be the representative of the applicant students.
To do this, students must complete in advance, at the time of enrollment formalization, the electronic form made available to them, through which they will grant representation to their university and grant them the right to collect the aid that be granted, taking into account that the UNED will apply the corresponding bonus for academic performance in the same procedure. This institution, as the student's representative and responsible for academic records and enrollment management, will be in charge of formulating the request for each of the enrollment periods established during the course.
40 million for a bonus in the Andalusian university system
In the regional budgets for this year, an item of 40 million euros has been reserved to finance the bonus for academic performance of the Andalusian public university system and last year more than 114,000 students benefited from it. To this amount are added the 821,000 euros allocated to the UNED.
The bonus is aimed at all students who are not scholarship holders of the Ministry of Education and who are not new students. As is the case in Andalusian public universities, the aid granted will consist of the payment of the amount of the approved credits. In the case of undergraduate studies, this deduction will be generated by the credits corresponding to subjects passed in the first enrollment in the year prior to the call. In the first enrollment in master's studies, the bonus will be applied for the credits corresponding to subjects passed in the first enrollment in any of the two previous courses. In the second or successive enrollments in these studies, the credits corresponding to the subjects passed in the first enrollment in the previous year will be considered.
For the calculation of the aid, the reference price will be taken as the one established in the corresponding decree establishing the public rates for public universities in Andalusia for academic and administrative university services.
This measure, aimed at encouraging academic performance, is a formula that, in addition to helping to reduce the economic effort of families, also has a positive impact on a better use of public resources. It is a mechanism that is applied regardless of the level of income and family assets. Thus, a student with good performance can complete his undergraduate studies by paying almost only the first year, with a total saving of up to 75% of the costs, and take a master's degree practically free.
New master's degree calendar
The Ministry of Economy, Knowledge, Business and University and the Andalusian public universities have agreed, within the Commission of the Unique University District, to delay the deadline for submitting applications and the procedure for admission to the university master's degrees that will be taught in the next academic year 2020/2021 in Andalusia. The new application submission dates are established from June 15 to July 16 in the ordinary phase.
This decision has been adopted due to the exceptional circumstances in which this academic year is taking place as a result of the Covid-19 health crisis and the state of alarm decreed as of March 14, which made it impossible to continue both in Andalusia and in the rest of the country with face-to-face educational activity in all centers and stages, cycles, degrees, courses and levels.
By virtue of what was agreed upon in the Commission of the Unified University District, the new deadline for submitting applications implies a delay of 15 days in the previously established period, which ran from June 1 to July 9. This change is intended to adjust the application and admission calendar for master's degrees to the new criteria adopted to adapt the teaching and evaluation of university education this school year to the situation caused by Covid-19. These guidelines were agreed last April in a framework document by the Ministry of Economy tuition, the rectors of Andalusian public universities and the Directorate of Evaluation and Accreditation (DEVA).
This framework document includes the possibility of delaying the dates of teaching certain subjects or carrying out practices and End-of-Degree Projects (TFG) that have not been able to adapt to a non-face-to-face modality, with the consequent delay in obtaining the bachelor's degree. For this reason, the new dates for taking the master's degrees have been established in such a way that their access is not prevented to those students who have been affected by changes in the programming of the subjects in which they were enrolled in the 2019/2020 academic year.
On the other hand, in the ordinary phase, the date to accredit the payment of the issuance of the degree title is set on October 2, the previous date being September 9. In this way, all students who have completed their undergraduate studies in this course can be admitted to the master's degrees in this phase, including those who have done so in extraordinary exams that are held in September. In order to set this limit, the calendar for the delivery of the bachelor's degree certificates in all Andalusian public universities has been taken into account.
Likewise, it has been established that all Andalusian public universities offer all their places in the ordinary phase, except those that were previously awarded in an open call for foreigners. In this way, places will not be reserved for the extraordinary phase, which takes place in October, offering only the vacancies registered in all the adjudication processes of the ordinary phase.
The most important dates of the application and admission process
The deadline to pay the title issuance fees will be October 2, 2020. However, this deadline will reach the December 30 limit when it is proven that the postponement of subjects, practices, End-of-Degree Projects or accreditation exams Linguistics, due to the health situation due to Covid-19, has prevented him from completing his studies in time to pay the degree on that date.
In the ordinary phase, once the application deadline from June 15 to July 16 has been completed, the application evaluation process has been set until July 28, so that the publication of the first award list will be the July 31st. This will be followed by a period for review or claims, from July 31 to August 6. The first period for enrollment, confirmation and reservation of a place has been established from August 3 to 6 and the publication of the second and last award list will be on September 14. Reviews or claims can be made from September 14 to 17.
The extraordinary phase, in which only vacant places are offered, will take place during the month of October, with an application period from September 30 to October 7 and publication of the first award list on October 20. The Commission of the Unique University District of Andalusia is chaired by the General Director of Universities, Immaculate Ramos, and composed of the vice-rectors competent in admission matters.
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