The Higher Education Students Financing Board (HEFSB), has announced that 1,196 students have been selected to benefit from the students’ Loan Scheme for the Academic Year 2023/24.
According to Eng. Dr. Charles Wana-Etyem, Ph.D., chairperson of the board, for the 10th Cohort of the Students’ Loan Scheme, the Board received and reviewed a total of 1,921 Loan Applications, of which 640 were rejected due to falling outside the eligibility criteria leaving a total of 1,281 as eligible applicants.
He noted that of the considered 1,281 eligible applications, 964 (75.25%) were Male Applicants while the Female Applicants were 317 (24.75%).
He explained that working off a budget of Shs5.2 billion, the Board was able to support 1,196 beneficiaries, which represents 93.4% of the eligible applicants numbering 1,281.
“This so far represents the highest number of successful applicants to funding ratio in the decade of the Board’s operations,” said Wana-Etyem.
However, he noted that the 1,921 Loan Applications received in this Academic Year represents a significant drop in the number of applicants by 25.8% against a total of 2,417 Applications received in the Academic Year 2022/2023, having had a bumper 6,247 Applications in the Academic Year 2021/22.
The call for applications targeted those that were already enrolled.
Distribution of the loans.
With the available resource of UShs 5.2 billion, 1,196 students have been approved and will be supported with tuition fees, functional fees and Aids and Appliances for persons with disabilities.
Of the 1,196 selected beneficiaries 879 (73.5%) are Male and 317 (26.5%) are Female, while 1,056 are Undergraduate Degrees and 140 Undergraduate Diploma applicants. Eleven (11) of these beneficiaries are Persons with Disabilities.
The Students’ Loan Scheme runs an affirmative action to increase the number of girls benefitting from the Students’ Loan Scheme including being offered an advantage of 7 points in the Means Test Assessment.
Regional Balance
Wana-Etyem said that every district in Uganda is highly represented with many of them having all applicants being supported in the cohort. Buvuma, Kaabong, Kapelebyong, Kiryandongo and Lyantonde districts, did not have applicants.
“This time round, we have registered good performance in districts that normally post dismal performance such as Madi-Okollo (5); Nakapiripirit (3); Napak (5); Terego (11); Kalangala (3). All the eligible applicants were considered by the Board,” he said.
The biggest majority of the selected beneficiaries offer Health Science programmes followed by Engineering and Information Technology programmes, Science Education and other natural sciences taking the rest of the slots. Some of the beneficiaries are offering Tourism programmes on affirmative action.
In his remarks, John Chrysostom Muyingo, the Minister of State for Higher Education, noted that the Board was recently given a total of UShs 13.958 Billion to pay off the outstanding domestic arrears owed to the Tertiary Institutions and also support a new cohort of Learners in the academic year 2023/2024.
He said, “I would like to inform the Universities that all the outstanding arrears are going to be paid off before the close of the financial year 2023/2024.”
Muyingo explained that the 1,196 Beneficiaries being added to the Scheme increases the number to 14,601 student loan beneficiaries.
Muyingo called for more funding to capitalize the Higher Education Students’ Financing Board.
“The demand for student loans has certainly surpassed the available resources. While initially, applicants averaged at 2000, the demand now outpaces the available resources with an average of more than 4,000 every year,” said Muyingo.
