Education: No more Crying for Tuition, Students’ Loan Application now Open
With Covid pandemic hitting the pockets of many Ugandans, parents inclusive, the government opened up the Students’ loans scheme to help university students continue with their studies with no hurdle even in this pandemic.
The Higher Education Students’ Financing Board (HESFB) has announced that students loans, through the Students Loan Scheme for the 2021/22 academic year is now accepting applications.
All eligible students (continuing and final year students included) who have been admitted to recognized higher education institutions can apply for the loans.
The board, with funding from Government of Uganda, has set aside Uganda Shillings 6 billion to support 1500 new cohort of student loan beneficiaries and at least 100 continuing students in the academic year 2021/22.
Michael Wanyama, the HESFB executive director, told journalists at the Uganda Media Centre on Monday that applications are open for all students that have been admitted for undergraduate diploma and degree programmes in.
“Public, private chartered universities and other listed tertiary institutions.” Wanyama added that, “The loan shall also cover aids and appliances for persons with disabilities, but the beneficiaries will be expected to cover their welfare expenses throughout their education programmes.”
“The students’ loan covers tuition, functional fees and any other fees required by the institutions,” Wanyama added.
For the 2021/22 academic year, the student loans will be given to financially challenged students joining higher institutions of learning who are not beneficiaries of any other funding or scholarships.
The application process according to Wanyama is online and prospective applicants have been urged to apply through the HESFB website: http://www.hesfb.go.ug
Wanyama said hard copy application forms will also be printed out in newspapers this week, and urged applicants to seek further guidance from the HESFB website or public universities only.
Government says Student’s Loan scheme has started yielding postive results as the number of 11000 students have sofar benefited from the programme.
Among these 11000 beneficiaries include,
3000 Medical personnel ,2000 science Teachers,1000 Agricultural experts, 3000 engineers among others.
This board disburses fees to the successful needy students on a straight line basis and upon completion of studies they are offered a grace period of 12 months after which the maximum repayment period is twice the study duration.