How will Zagreb’s revised scholarship rules change eligibility, scoring and the process for accepting public funding?
A simpler route into the scheme
Zagreb’s City Assembly has adopted new decisions on municipal scholarships, with the city saying the changes will simplify applications, broaden access and introduce fairer criteria. Around 1,400 scholarships are expected this year through five programmes. The most direct administrative change concerns contracting: accepting the general scholarship conditions will count as concluding the agreement, instead of printing and signing paperwork. The city says this will remove the need to process around 3,200 contracts each year. The change illustrates a transferable principle in public funding schemes: an award can remain conditional on published rules while the act of acceptance is handled through a less burdensome digital step.
Eligibility will depend more on circumstances
The revised rules allow greater flexibility when applicants complete documentation for scholarships for pupils and students with disabilities, those assessed by socioeconomic status and members of the Roma national minority. For socioeconomic scholarships, the income threshold rises from 80 to 100 per cent of the budgetary base, or from 352 to 441 euros per household member. Recipients of the guaranteed minimum benefit can receive two additional points. The separate quota for artistic and scientific fields is also removed. In scoring extracurricular achievements, artistic and cultural results will join sporting achievements, broadening what counts as evidence of merit.
Scoring and household rules are adjusted
For scholarships for pupils and students with disabilities, the balance between disability and achievement points is being revised, while the share awarded for extracurricular activities is reduced because those activities are not equally accessible to all people with disabilities. For excellence and shortage-occupation scholarships, the limit of two recipients from the same household is removed. Roma-national-minority scholarships will distinguish between exemplary and good conduct, and students repeating a year may receive an individual assessment of their circumstances rather than automatic exclusion. The city said the revised approach is intended to recognise applicants’ actual situations more accurately.
What applicants and funders should watch
The changes show how a public scholarship allocation can combine open eligibility rules, weighted scoring and a formal acceptance stage. Applicants will still be assessed against the criteria for the relevant programme, but the criteria now give more weight to household income, disability-related circumstances and a wider range of achievements. The removal of an automatic exclusion for some repeat-year students also shifts the process towards individual assessment. Zagreb reported that its monthly awards are 380 euros net for pupils and 520 euros net for students, placing the scheme, according to the city’s statement, among the highest in Croatia.
IN NUMBERS
The decisions apply to Zagreb’s municipal scholarship programmes and are presented by the city as a way to reduce administrative work while making public support more responsive to applicants’ circumstances.
Reported from index.hr, 2026-09-23. The Tender Wire is published by Otnox.
