Student Welfare Fund cuts state share of meal costs for students beyond their normal course length

The Student Welfare Fund of the Islamic Republic's Ministry of Science has reduced the state's share of meal costs for students who study for more than eight terms. The decision is being implemented in months when food prices in Iran have more than doubled and point-to-point inflation for food and drink exceeded 108 percent between 23 August and 22 September.

Reza Hojjati, acting head of the Student Welfare Fund, said that under normal conditions the state pays "about 90 percent" of the cost of each student meal and that the meal subsidy continues until the end of the twelfth term. He admitted that the price of raw materials has risen sharply in recent months and has put added financial pressure on student catering.

The student's share of meal costs, term by term

According to the announced table, the state's share falls to 85 percent in the ninth term, 80 percent in the tenth and 70 percent in the eleventh. An eleventh-term student therefore pays 30 percent of the cost of each meal, three times the share of a student studying within the normal period. With food prices doubling at the same time, what a student pays when moving from the ninth to the eleventh term within one year more than quadruples.

The Welfare Fund had earlier announced that the student's share of each meal would not rise before the end of the year. Hojjati gave no explanation regarding evening-course students, and neither the number of students beyond their normal term count nor the state's share in the twelfth term has been announced.

Student protests and food poisoning

Students at several universities have protested over the price and quality of food, and some associations have demanded that the new plan be halted. At the same time, reports speak of a decline in the quality of university food; at Bu-Ali Sina University in Hamedan, a large number of students were poisoned. The university's deputy for student affairs said that the students who went to medical centres with gastrointestinal symptoms had eaten lunch at the university and that an investigation into the cause, including the quality of the raw materials, has begun.

The cut in student meal subsidies is part of a crisis gripping Iran's economy under the pressure of war, sanctions and a naval blockade; the International Monetary Fund recently forecast that Iran's economy will shrink by 7.6 percent this year, and retirees in several cities gathered to protest high prices and inflation.

With the subsidy cut and food prices doubled, the cost of meals for a student beyond the normal course length more than quadruples within a year.