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Govt. to expand UG programmes across regions amid surge in applications
University of Guyana, Turkeyen Campus
Kaieteur News – President Irfaan Ali has announced plans to expand programmes offered by the University of Guyana (UG) across several regions in response to a significant increase in applications, particularly in medicine and engineering, following the government’s recent move to provide free university education.
President Irfaan Ali
In late 2024, the government announced that all new and continuing students pursuing Diplomas, Bachelors, Masters, and PhD programmes at the University of Guyana, would access those free of cost. This policy led to an unprecedented surge in applications. By May 30, 2025, UG reported over 20,000 applications initiated within the first month of the free tuition initiative, the highest number ever recorded at the university.
Due to the overwhelming demand, UG temporarily closed applications on May 16, 2025. However, responding to public requests, the university reopened its application portal for a few select programmes with available space from May 30 to June 2. In a statement, UG noted that many of the most competitive programmes, such as Medicine and Engineering, were already oversubscribed by several hundred applicants.
To address this capacity issue, President Ali announced during a recent press conference that programmes currently offered at the Turkeyen campus will soon be expanded to Regions Two, Three, Six, and Nine. The expansion, expected to begin before the end of 2025, aims to reduce transportation costs for students, increase access to higher education across the country, and ease pressure on the main campus.
“As you know, we introduce free university education as a result of this announcement, which removed financial burden and barriers, making higher education more accessible to all Guyanese, and as we anticipated, applications have doubled at the University of Guyana, particularly in high demand areas such as medicine and engineering, to meet this demand and ease pressure on the Turkeyen campus, we are working on launching in the coming weeks, programmes across different regions,” President Ali said.
Providing figures, the president noted that 418 applications were received for medicine, with over 130 qualified applicants, while only 60 seats were initially available. He stated that the government has since invested in 50 additional seats at the Turkeyen campus, increasing the intake to 110. “With the readiness of Region Six, that’s another 30, taking it to 140. So you had 130 qualified, and we’ll have 140 seats ready that will meet the needs of those qualified,” the president announced.
Meanwhile all mechanical engineering applicants will be accommodated. President Ali emphasised that for civil engineering, where 241 students have already been admitted, 50 qualified applicants remain unplaced. To address this, Ali stated,“ We have been able to put systems in place to create 30 seats in Region Three, 30 seats in Region six and 30 seats in Region Two for the study of different disciplines in the engineering faculty of the University of Guyana in these three regions, so that would allow students to study closer to home, more comfortable environment, and, of course, reducing their cost of transport and make more productive use of their time.”
Beyond medicine and engineering, President Ali confirmed that assessments are underway for expanding additional academic programmes in various regions. “In Region Six, we are ready to implement a rollout of medicine with 30 seats at the New Amsterdam Regional Hospital. Once the new hospital infrastructure is completed, we will further increase capacity based on demand,” he said.
He added that academic staff for Region Six have already been identified, and the Berbice Campus will support the programme. Final assessments are now being conducted to ensure the readiness of furniture, administrative systems, lab equipment, and IT connectivity to operationalise the new offerings before year-end.
In Region Three, President Ali stated that teaching spaces have already been identified, and a gap analysis is currently underway to determine staffing and laboratory needs for a future expansion in medicine.
“The same exercise is being conducted in Regions Two and Nine, where we hope to expand in different areas of medicine,” he said.
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