Government approves loans for hiked UG tuition fees

Aug 21, 2014 News

– disbursements will not cover Facilities Fee

Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana would only say “once everything is approved we will be happy” when informed of a statement from the Ministry of Finance that the way has been cleared for the disbursement of student loans.

Finance Minister, Dr.Ashni Singh

Just last week the Vice Chancellor was hurling threats to shut down the University if the Government support to students to meet their tuition fee needs were not forthcoming by the start of the academic year. This course of action was being contemplated in light of the University’s cash-strapped state and the fact that it’s administration was unable to ascertain whether the Ministry of Finance’s Student Loan Agency would have been granting loans to students to meet a hiked tuition fee.
A statement issued by the Finance Ministry yesterday quoted the Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh as saying, that Government will be providing the needed support to University students.
The loans issue was one that was gaining the attention of Cabinet, and Minister Singh in the statement explained that “Cabinet concluded its deliberations on the matter yesterday (Tuesday) having examined it exhaustively.”
He made it clear that the decision to grant the student loans factored in an increase of the tuition fees which were recently announced by the University.
The University last month announced an increase in its tuition fee from $127,000, which will see new students having to pay from this year, $160,000, while the continuing students will be required to pay $130,000. The hike in the fee is however, not across the board since there are some programmes, particularly those in Health Sciences that have retained their fees.
However, all students will be required to pay an additional $50,000 Facilities Fee which has replaced various miscellaneous fees.
But according to the Finance Minister, the loans that will be afforded to students will not cater to the Facilities Fee. “As before the loans granted to finance tuition fees, will not include the Facilities Fee which has historically been paid by students outside of the student loan arrangement,” Dr. Singh asserted.
According to him too, already the necessary directives have been issued for the Student Loan Agency to commence processing loan applications immediately for the coming academic year.
The Finance Minister has also intimated that the decision by Government to grant the increased student loans was made as a result of Government’s commitment to ensure that no Guyanese student is denied access to a University education because of affordability.
Further, the Minister expressed optimism that with the increased revenue, the University is poised to earn the necessary changes that will be made to ensure better effectiveness in its operation. “The University needs to make a more concerted effort to streamline its operations to ensure value for money, more prudent management, and a sustained higher quality of teaching and research output,” stressed the Finance Minister.
Meanwhile, Minister Singh indicated that Cabinet has expressed its continuing concern about the poor rate of repayment of loans previously granted. He is therefore urging that defaulters opt to increasingly embrace voluntary compliance, even as Government considers options for strengthening enforcement to raise repayment rates.
The ideal option, Minister Singh noted “would be for persons to act responsibly and repay previous loans they were granted voluntarily without any stringent enforcement measures having to be applied.”