As we enter the 21st century, the social dimension of Higher Education is one of the key elements in university policies. Among measures aimed at retaining students, scholarship and study grant policies help to ensure equality. In Spain, the establishment of the Study Aid Programme (PAE) for degree studies is an outstanding innovative initiative. This study is aimed at assessing the importance of the PAE as an economic factor in equity, access and academic performance in the fi rst year at university. The data used is that available on all students who began degree studies at Abat Oliba CEU University from the 2009-10 academic years to the 2015-16 academic years. The results confi rm that obtaining a scholarship becomes an incentive that infl uences key aspects for persistence, such as the degree of eff ort and educational commitment with positive results on students’ performance.
