Our view: Students’ sense of entitlement knows no bounds

The sense of entitlement of some of our young is quite astonishing. This is not entirely their fault as this attitude has been cultivated over the years by the political parties, led by Akel and union leaderships which hold the view that the state’s main function is to make people’s lives as easy as possible. Nobody seems interested in asking whether the state can actually afford all services and benefits that are being demanded.

This unappealing mentality was illustrated in an article in Wednesday’s Politis, in which two students at the University of Cyprus were going on about the “unbearable cost” of university life and “the difficulties they and their families were facing during their studies”. The students, who are being provided with a top quality university education completely free of charge, complained about the “high cost of living” and the government’s indifference “to our demands for the reduction in rents or the increase in the student grant”.

They were currently running a campaign for the restoration of the €28 million cut from the student support budget in 2013, during the economic meltdown. They were demanding that “at least half this amount was returned as it was for students who really needed the money.” They ignore the fact that the money was cut because the state had been driven to the brink of bankruptcy by the reckless spending of the Christofias government, which had no regard for the taxpayer’s money.

In this same article, the entitled students moan because the monthly rent for a studio flat was about €500 and the UCy offered only 207 rooms for 7,000 students. A student might need €1,200 for living expenses a month, not to mention the cost of books, one student told Politis, adding: “for some it is a tough dilemma – study at university or live? Of course many choose the latter.”

It is not enough that they pay nothing in tuition fees and they all receive a small state grant, while those in need get additional financial assistance from the fund that until a few days ago was run by the first lady. What the state is offering students of public universities is more than enough, but the appalling sense of entitlement makes them demand more – bigger grant and subsidised accommodation.

Our entitled students have not heard that in the past, when there were no universities in Cyprus, Cypriots went abroad to study, many stayed in cheap, run-down housing, spent an hour or more travelling to university and a lot of them did part time worked to cover their living expenses. And the state offered them and their parents nothing in support. None of them complained or made demands for state assistance. Someone needs to point out these truths to our entitled university students and shatter the illusion that the state owes them an ultra-comfortable university life, paid for by the taxpayer.