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The Higher Education Students' Financing Board (HESFS) announced today, Thursday July 6, that it will not be accepting any new applications for the study loan “due to budgetary shortfalls”
“The Board WILL NOT RECEIVE applications for Study Loans to the Academic Year 2023/24. The Board will continue to facilitate in-study Loan Scheme Beneficiaries while engaging all stakeholders in resource mobilization to resume supporting new cohorts of Student Loans in the Financial Year 2024/25. We are sorry for any inconveniences this may causes,” announced Michael Wanyama, the HESFB Executive Director
HESFB is the implementing agency of the student loan scheme which started back in 2014 with the purpose of increasing access to Higher Education and supporting highly qualified Ugandan students who may not afford Higher Education.
The board however, has over the years grappled with low funding from the Government.
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Wanyama told Parliament last month that low funding, coupled with staff shortages at the board has made it harder to implement the scheme.
The scheme has also been in the eye of the storm amid accusations that it favors students from certain parts of the country.
Auditor General John Muwanga highlighted these imbalances in his most recent report.
Since its establishment, the scheme has so far supported 13,405 beneficiaries (1.93 Undergraduate Degrees and 2,012 Undergraduate Diplomas) to study 130 undergraduate degrees and 76 undergraduate diploma programmes mainly in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM).
The program however, allows exemption for Learners with Special Needs who can access study loans to pursue all programmes of their choice including all Humanities Programmes.
The scheme supports qualifying beneficiaries with tuition fees, functional fees, research fees and aids and appliances (for Learners with disabilities) on a straight line basis for the entire duration of study. A Beneficiary is then offered a one-year grace period before the start of the repayment period which is twice the duration of the study period.