Despite impressive successes registered by Higher Education Students Financing Board, the board will seize being independent and will be sent back to Ministry of Education, this website has learnt.
However State Minister for Higher Education Chrystom Muyingo says the scheme will be boosted with more money.
“We are not stranggling Higher Education Students Financing Board. The name will change after being integrated back to mother ministry and its budget will be increased,” Muyingo said.
“The loan scheme programme is Nrm child and its here to stay,” he added.
According to Higher Education Students Financing Board Executive Director Michael Wanyama todate, a total of 14,601 Learners in 23 Universities both Public and Private and 36 Other Tertiary Institutions have benefitted from the Scheme.
The HESFB board started implementing the student loans scheme in 2014 and has since supported about 13,400 beneficiaries with at least 11,393 acquiring undergraduate degrees and 2,012 obtaining undergraduate Diplomas programmes mainly in Science, Technology, and Math(STEM).
Wanyama says the Scheme has increased equitable access to higher education; supported qualified students who cannot afford the costs of higher education; supported programmes that are deemed critical to National Development and ensured Regional balance in higher education services for all Ugandans.
“The introduction of the Student Loan scheme has created opportunities to the less privileged Learners to access higher education at both undergraduate degree and diploma levels. It has availed opportunities to many Ugandans who would otherwise not have had a chance to pursue their academic dreams,”Wanyama said.
“The Board takes into consideration regional balance, gender, social economic status and equity in accordance with the Higher Education Students’ Financing Act of 2014. All Applicants were subjected to a uniform score card which considers proxy indicators to arrive at the Lending decision and the various proxy indicators have been factored into ICT software scorecard. The Student Loans therefore have been awarded to the most deserving Loan Applicants who are the most deserving among those that applied. The good news this time is that 93.4% of the eligible applicants were successful,” he added.
Addressing the media, Wanyama revealed that this budget allocation Shs 5.2 billion for students loan scheme to fund 1,196 students at both undergraduate degree and diploma level.
The Number of Tertiary Institutions benefitting from the scheme has continued to grow from 12 Universities in the academic year 2014/15 to currently 23 and 36 Other Tertiary Institutions.
The Board has increased on the number of programmes being supported to 136 Undergraduate science programmes and 76 diploma programmes while Persons with Disabilities are supported for any programme they are admitted for in either science or humanity disciplines.
