Africa-Press – Uganda. Government has asked financially unstable students who have been admitted in various tertiary institutions across the country to apply for study loans for the 2021/2022 academic year.
Government is this academic year scheduled to give 1,600 study loans to Ugandan students who wish to pursue higher education in recognised Ugandan institutions, but are unable to support themselves.
In an interview with Daily Monitor yesterday, the communication manager of the Higher Education Students Financing Board (HESFB), Mr Bob Nuwagira, said the exercise starts on Monday and ends at the end of November.
“Due to Covid-19 challenges, applications are going to be online. However, due to Internet challenges in some parts of the country, we have set up 16 centres that will help students who face challenges,” Mr Nuwagira said.
Most universities have admitted students for 2021/2022 academic year online.
The students’ study loans cover undergraduate students with certificates and wish to upgrade to diplomas, and those of diploma but want to upgrade to bachelors.
The scheme also caters for students who sat for the Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education in the same academic year and wish to pursue degrees or diplomas as well as continuing students in their final year of study.
However, all these beneficiaries should be undertaking courses mainly in sciences, technology, engineering and Math. Only students with disability are allowed to pursue programmers in humanities and social sciences.
Mr Nuwagira said of the 1,600 beneficiaries, 1,200 will be sponsored to study bachelors, (300) diplomas while (100) will go to continuing students in their final year of study who had not initially been catered for in the scheme.
As one of the ways to promote affirmative action in the scheme, extra points are given to students with disability, orphans, girl-child and students from northern Uganda and in Island districts such as Buvuma and Kalangala.
However, some students started forging disabilities or announced their parents dead so that they could benefit from the scheme. The board this month disqualified 47 students from the study loans scheme.
The scheme was started by government in 2014 to help poor students access higher education.
To date, the board has sponsored 11,187 students. More than 3,000 have completed their studies with their loans due for repayment.
Whereas the number of students who apply for the study keeps increasing since 2014, the number of beneficiaries remain low. For instance last year, more than 5,000 students applied for the loans, but only 1,146 benefited.
Various stakeholders including Parliamentarians have been putting pressure on government to increase money for the scheme or abolish government sponsorship and transfer the fund towards study loans.
The loans cover tuition fees, functional fees, research fees, and Aids and appliances of Persons with Disabilities. Beneficiaries are slated to cover their own accommodation, feedings, medical care, scholastic materials, and any other expenses required by the student outside what HESFB finances.
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