The Roma Education Fund publicly announced – in January 2022 – its plans to redesign the foundation’s strategy, with a new focus that considers the social, political, and economical challenges of the past two years. Therefore, the scholarship programs are also in the process of reconfiguration, using as base lines for development the new strategy that will be made public in the months to come.
As so, the REF Scholarship Programs (REF SP) – Roma Memorial University Scholarship Program (RMUSP), Roma Health Scholarship Program (RHSP), Law and Humanities Program (LHP), and Roma International Scholar Program (RISP) – that have been implemented for the past 17 years are undergoing changes. The purpose thereof is to transform the programs into a tool that connects more impactfully the future beneficiaries with their respective Roma communities, and to offer them the possibility to quickly react and respond to the community’s needs.
As of 2023, these four scholarship programs will no longer be implemented under the guidelines, rules, and names the foundation has used since the very beginning. However, applying the experience collected during the past two decades of implementation, we will deliver an upgraded students’ program.
At the same time, REF remains steadfast in its commitment to the students that are already beneficiaries of our REF SP and will continue to financially support all of them until their graduation. Therefore, REF will provide, by the end of 2022, a financial support package meant to cover the scholarship, in one installment, for all the students who are expecting to graduate within the next years. REF has renewal students who will graduate from their current academic level in the years 2024, 2025 and 2026. All of them will have our full financial support to continue their studies until their previously indicated graduation year.
“For almost two decades, the Roma Education Fund has provided more than 18.000 scholarships to Roma students from 16 countries, with a total financial investment of over 29 million EUR. We like to think that our support made a significant impact on their careers, many of the former students being now doctors, teachers, engineers and so on. The new students’ programs shall be built on the positive experience of the Roma Education Fund. As I underlined in the statement published in January, investment to support Roma education must be adjusted and adapted to the social realities of compact Roma communities” – Ciprian Necula, Chair Roma Education Fund.
