VMU Support Fund for Students Affected by COVID-19 Outbreak

Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) has started providing support for students who experience financial difficulties as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. A special fund has been established for this purpose.

The fund aims to support university students and their families who experience financial difficulties because of the lockdown. The amount of support currently available in the fund is 100,000 euros.

The financial support is allocated for the students from the university’s own funds or collected by legal persons. Some of it was also acquired as support given in the form of 2 percent of the personal income tax.

Forms of financial support for those affected by COVID-19:

Tuition fee concessions
Accommodation fee concessions
Partial reimbursement of expenses on provided services
One-time scholarships

A university student who wishes to receive financial support related to COVID-19 has to submit a free-format request to the VMU Rector specifying a valid reason (situation) for allocation of financial support and present the documents that support it (their digital versions), as long as at least one of the following criteria is met:

During the period of the lockdown enforced by the government of Lithuania, the student, his parents, or one of his parents lost his job (a certificate from the Employment Services) or experienced a significant reduction of their income (certificates from state authorities regarding insured income for February, March, and April and (or) certificates about payments received from the workplace). The criterion of significant income reduction is valid for applications submitted on 1 May or later.
As a result of difficult circumstances related to the measures of prevention or management of the COVID-19 pandemic applied by countries of the world, students who studied or did internships abroad returned to Lithuania (or could not return to Lithuania in time) and incurred additional expenses because of this (documents that prove the expenses: invoices and financial documents that confirm their payment).
A student whose parent died from an infection caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) (a document that confirms the death).

Applications should be submitted by e-mail to studentas@vdu.lt until the end of each month. At the beginning of each following month, decisions are made regarding the applications and each applicant is informed about this individually by e-mail.

The decision regarding allocation of support as well as its type and size is made by a special commission which takes into account the available amount of funds allocated for support related to COVID-19, the validity of the application, the situation’s compliance with the requirements, and other funds or support provided by the state, the university, or other natural or legal persons.

Other VMU support for students who experience difficulties related to COVID-19

We would like to remind you that, in order to reduce the negative impact of the lockdown, for the period from 1 April 2020 until 30 June 2020, Vytautas Magnus University already provides a 25 percent reduction of the accommodation fee for all VMU students who have signed an accommodation agreement with the university. More information available here.

Students who are unable to pay the accommodation fee because of difficult financial situation can postpone the payment until the cancellation of the lockdown in Lithuania (and pay it later in accordance with an individual payment schedule) or divide the due accommodation fee into multiple parts and pay a smaller amount (the remaining unpaid amount of the fee would be paid later in accordance with an individual payment schedule). Students who wish to submit such a request should send e-mail to studentas@vdu.lt.

University may extend the deadline for the payment of the tuition fee or permit its payment in parts for the students who submit applications regarding the financial situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In such cases, the student has to write a motivated request addressed to rector, specifying the reasons why the university should permit him to pay the respective fee in parts, and submit the request to the dean of the faculty in which he is studying.

For more information about support provided for the students, please contact:

VMU Student Centre
Phone	+370 37 751 175
E-mail	studentas@vdu.lt

Anyone with the means to do so is also welcome to support the students who experience financial difficulties. This can be done by transferring money to a special university account at SEB Bank opened for this purpose, No. LT41 7044 0600 0284 8638, specifying “Parama VDU studentams” as purpose of payment. You can also support the students by submitting 1,2 percent of your personal income tax. More information about this is available here (in Lithuanian).