OVERLOAD OF DOCUMENTS
“I WAS NOT ABLE TO ACCES MY MONEY”

Students who decide to study abroad are informed in a much more sufficient way these days then they were some years ago. Among the big amount of documents that are handed out to students, the paperwork about financial issues are regarded as the most important. The question can be razed if that information is transparent and complete enough to guarantee a pleasant stay without too much financial worries.

ARRIVAL

Every student coming from abroad receives, along with the admittance letter from the university, the brochure “Travelling to Leuven” a few months prior to their departure for Belgium. This brochure includes an estimate of the monthly living costs in this university town and the possible expenses that will be incurred during the first few weeks after arrival. So presumably students preparing for their stay in Leuven have some idea of how much money they will have to bring with them. Those with sufficient means will have pocket money, cash in Euro or another currency, intended not only for unavoidable expenses upon arrival but also for possible contingencies.

This is precisely what Jenny from the United States did. Prepared to live in her new place, she was ready with dollars from home. Little did she know that it would take a while for her money to be converted into Euros. She had to have an account at a local bank first and the whole process was not as easy as it is in her country. Other documents like proof of registration at the university, the rental contract, and the residence permit are required for opening an account. The irony of the situation was that Jenny needed the money to be able to secure a room or a studio and thus to have a rental contract, while this document is necessary for getting a bank account.

MOONLIGHTING

The whole situation forced her to open an ‘emergency loan’ at a Belgian bank. It is not hard to imagine that quite a lot of students are confronted with similar problems. The first solution that passes their mind is taking a student job till they are able to access their money. But since getting a legitimate job requires that one have a residence permit -and the application process for one takes a month at the very least- some of them will be forced to get into moonlighting, so called “black jobs,” rendering them, as workers, vulnerable to exploitation.

EVEN WITH SCHOLARSHIP

Even scholarship-holding students can fall into money-problems. This can happen because of a delay in the release of the allowance. Moreover, students can also end up in difficult situations because of some misunderstanding about the actual beginning of the scholarship period, as was the case with Stella, a pre-doctoral student from the Philippines. She spend all her money of her October scholarship in September and had to survive for a month on less than 200 Euros.

It can be said perhaps that the situations of the students we have talked about so far are ultimately due to lack of preparation and/or to some misunderstanding or miscommunication. It is important to point out, however, that students from developing countries are able to pursue their studies in Leuven because they won a grant or scholarship. For their subsistence in Leuven, these students are totally dependent on the scholarship money they receive every month and they have no other source of income. Most single pre-doctoral students receive at least 750 Euros each month. They will be allowed to live at a subsidized university residence and thus will pay rent that is considerably lower than at a private accommodation. Of course, that amount can be enough for a student to live on, so long as he or she budgets well. But then, it is possible that with this amount, the student will not be able to buy books, eat out, treat himself to a movie, travel, and so on. Apart from these unexpected expenses will almost always come up: the computer crashes, the student gets sick, the secondhand bike breaks down, etc. In situations like that, financial problems are difficult to avoid. |