Latest update November 21st, 2024 1:00 AM
UGSS calls out Council on failure to award scholarships
The University of Guyana (UG) has thus far failed to fulfill its promise to award 10 scholarships to top performing students who have been excelling academically. But the University of Guyana Students’ Society (UGSS) is not prepared to let this state of affairs linger.
In fact, according to UGSS President Joshua Griffith at a press conference on Wednesday, the Students’ Society was forced to bring the scholarship lapse to the attention of the University’s Council.
Several students stroll along the catwalk at UG.
The Council has admitted that it had “sincerely forgotten and will work immediately to have it implemented,” Griffith said.
The UGSS had last week highlighted, in writing, its concerns about the scholarship to the Council about the scholarship situation. Ahead of this, Griffith said, there had been no mention of the scholarship awards from the UG administration since its initial discussion.
At consultations on the tuition fee increase and discussions with members of the Students’ Society last year, a significant promise for the use of the Facilities Fee was that 10 scholarships be awarded annually for students who are poor, but have excelled academically. But the UGSS in its missive to the Council questioned, “Where are the 10 scholarships promised for the academic year 2014/2015?”
“We call on the University of Guyana to fulfill this promise of 10 scholarships to the Students’ Society, and by extension, the entire student body,” the UGSS appealed in its letter to the Council.
However, Griffith said that at the University’s Annual Business Meeting (ABM) last Friday, it was communicated to the UGSS that the situation was an oversight.
The promise of scholarships, according to the UGSS President, “is one of the very things that we endorsed and push for at the Society, to help to alleviate some of the challenges that students face to afford an education”.
But according to him, there has been no concrete discussion on the way forward with regards to the scholarship awards. Griffith noted, nevertheless, that those expected to be eligible are “in principle, the students who are from less fortunate situations, and have to be excelling or have had excelled at their education at minimum. That is the general outline, but that’s not written in stone.”
The University’s Council has committed to respond to the UGSS’s concerns but has not put a timeline to its response. The UGSS is however hoping that the Council responds by tomorrow in order to avoid retaliation on the part of the UGSS and the student body.
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