After the Covid years, the inflationary context continues to weaken a certain student population in great precariousness. The University of Lorraine takes the problem very seriously. At the IUT of Thionville-Yutz, aid exists.
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“Student precariousness existed before 2020. The Covid was the revealer,” said Pierre Degott, vice-president of the Council for University Life at the University of Lorraine. Social assistance is part of the remit of the University Service for Preventive Medicine and Health Promotion (SUMPPS), which works hand in hand with the Crous (Regional Center for University and School Works). In 2022, the social assistance center of the University of Lorraine processed 518 requests for exceptional aid: 166 concerned the payment of rent in student residences and 361 financial aid. A net of several hundred thousand euros which very often has been the last resort for certain students in great difficulty. “Between 2021 and 2022, emergency aid increased by 91%”, points out Pierre Degott. Other firewalls are also deployed within the University of Lorraine to limit situations of great precariousness, such as the distribution of meal tickets, emergency housing assistance, solidarity grocery stores, or a system of medical consultations.
Meal at 1 €
At the IUT of Thionville-Yutz, the absence of a solidarity grocery store – the closest being located in Metz – and the closing of the university restaurant (RU) in the evenings, led officials to imagine alternative solutions. In collaboration with the Crous which manages the UK, take-out lunches are available for €1 since the start of the school year in September 2022. The IUT also carries out actions on its own funds, in connection with the needs of its precarious students. . “We bought bicycles to allow our young people to travel for free. We have also invested in food and hygiene vouchers, vouchers to equip housing, in the purchase of warm clothes and small digital equipment, ”explains Antonietta Specogna, director of the IUT of Thionville-Yutz.
Pedagogical support
Annual loans of laptops are also possible for those who do not have sufficient financial resources to equip themselves. But help for students in difficulty does not stop there, since educational support is in place, student contracts and housing assistance are offered. “We are a human-sized institution, so it is easier to identify students in difficulty”, insists Antonietta Specogna. Especially since the relay, if it is not done directly often out of modesty, can be done by the Thionville-Yutz student office, or through the “equality, diversity and inclusion” unit.
