Free UG from Jan. 2025 – Pres. Ali

Oct 11, 2024 News

Government has promised to remove tuition fees for Guyanese attending University of Guyana from next year January

Kaieteur News – Government from January 2025 will remove tuition fees from the University of Guyana for Guyanese, President Irfaan Ali told Parliament during an address on Thursday.

He said the decision is in keeping with the administration’s 2020 manifesto pledge. Government has already begun to write-off debts by Guyanese who had studied at the university through the Ministry of Finance- issued loans.

“I now wish to announce that we’ll be proceeding with the delivery of our manifesto commitment to provide free university education at the University of Guyana,” President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali announced. Saying that tuition fees will be completely abolished at UG starting in January 2025, President Ali noted: “this measure will benefit in excess of 11,000 current students at UG immediately, and of course, all the new entrants in the future. The future belongs to all of these young people,” the president said. “This will continue the advancement of our human capital for a more prosperous future for our country and for all of the young people who will benefit from this initiative and their families.”

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo recently announced that the government is expected to write off approximately $5 billion in student loan debt owed to the University of Guyana (UG) by the end of 2024. It was recently reported that the government, through the Ministry of Finance, has written off approximately $203.7 million in student debt owed. This was highlighted by the Ministry of Finance’s 2024 mid-year report, which revealed that this latest development has benefitted around 346 persons to date. “So if you divide the $203 million by 346, you will get about $588,000, on average per each person,” Jagdeo said.

Within the second half of the year, an additional 2,900 persons is expected to benefit from this initiative. The Vice President said, “If we use the same average that will be about $5 billion alone this year and if more people come in, we will write all of it off in a single year, the full $18 billion once they are eligible. So I want to urge the students, who have outstanding debt to just apply for the write off so that we can proceed with doing so.”

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Bharrat Jagdeo, Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali, Guyanese, President Irfaan, university

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