What does the delay mean for families and visitors on La Palma?
Visitors are not affected by the dispute. It concerns student grants (becas al estudio) for the 2025-2026 school year, meant to help La Palma families cover the extra cost of their children’s further studies.
According to the PSOE statement, the Cabildo has just published the final resolution. The statement gave no publication date.
Applicants should read the resolution on the Cabildo’s electronic office (sede electrónica). The Cabildo’s Educación department can also help, but payment dates are not confirmed.
Residents with no children at university need do nothing. The Cabildo’s news page carried no item on the grants on 13 November 2026.
What does the PSOE accuse CC of?
Socialist councillor Susana Machín speaks for the group and calls the island government’s delay unjustified. She says La Palma’s students do not deserve to be struck off the priority list by Coalición Canaria (CC).
Machín calls the delay “a historic backlog” that many students and families are waiting on. In her view, the Cabildo is always in injury time on education policy.
The PSOE says this has been the pattern since CC took over the Cabildo, and that it leaves recipients deeply uncertain. In Machín’s words, the island government “lives on announcements, not deeds”.
What does the Cabildo say, and what is still open?
The statement contains no reply from CC or the Cabildo. Our own checks found no official comment on the delay by Friday.
The amount, the number of applicants, the deadlines and the payment calendar are all unknown. It is also unclear why the grants came late, and whether the 2026-2027 call has been announced.
Under Educación y Empleo, the Cabildo links a page called “Ayudas al Estudio” and separate housing grants for the ULL and ULPGC universities. We could not view the text of the call.
How did the dispute over the Cabildo’s grants begin?
Back in January 2024, Machín criticised the Cabildo’s budget. The PSOE wanted to raise student grants from 250,000 euros to 1 million euros, and language stays abroad from 90,000 to 300,000 euros.
According to the PSOE, the CC majority rejected its amendments. That report carried no reply from CC.
In March 2022, the Cabildo’s social department paid 191,000 euros to 191 students studying off the island who were hit by the eruption, 1,000 euros each. Before that, 75,000 euros went out in December and 87,000 euros in February.
That aid covered university, vocational training (FP) and postgraduate study, and applicants had to be directly affected. These are earlier figures; we found no total budget for 2025-2026.
What other study grants can Palmeros claim?
The Canary Government (Gobierno de Canarias) put out general university grants for 2025-2026 with a budget of 10.5 million euros. They cover the full tuition fee, an income-based fixed sum of 1,700 euros and 2,700 euros for accommodation.
Applications opened on 11 August 2025 and ran for one month. Extra amounts of 442 to 937 euros cover transport, and 600 to 3,000 euros apply in cases of disability.
The travel grant appeared in the BOC (the Canary Islands official gazette) on 29 June 2026, with 1 million euros for sea and air travel and up to 360 euros per student. The window opened on 30 June 2026 for one month and has now closed.
Some town halls also back students who study off the island, among them Breña Baja (23 October to 21 November 2025), Tijarafe and Santa Cruz de La Palma. These are not Cabildo programmes, and current 2026 deadlines are not confirmed.
What happens next with the campus and the student residence?
On 30 May 2026, the Cabildo’s Consejo de Gobierno (governing council) approved a cooperation deal with the Fundación Canaria General de la ULL, a public university foundation. It is to study a permanent campus, and the Cabildo named no sum.
The sites planned are Santa Cruz de La Palma for health studies and Los Llanos de Aridane for science and research. Cabildo president Sergio Rodríguez leads the island government; the next step is a joint “memoria de actuación” (action report), with no date set.
Machín accuses the Cabildo of building castles in the air, with a campus run through alliances with private universities. We found no evidence of private universities, so the claim stays unconfirmed.
On 22 August 2026, the Cabildo announced a student residence in La Laguna on Tenerife. It depends on a land agreement with the Canary Government that has not yet been signed, and the Cabildo gave no cost.