Students to know their scholarship category next week
As the September 7th application deadline approaches, only 23% of students who have been accepted into degree, diploma, and arts programs have completed their applications for university funding on the Higher Education Funding (HEF) website.
In an interview with the Star on Tuesday, CEO of the Higher Education Loans Board (Helb), Charles Ringera, revealed that the total number of applications received has not yet reached 100,000.
Ringera explained, “For our planning purposes, we need a substantial number of students to have submitted applications… Currently, we have received 65,000 applications, with an influx of 10,000.”
He went on to say that students will be informed of their assigned funding category once the government receives a minimum of 100,000 applications.
“We anticipate that by next week, we will already have hit the 100,000 application mark and will be able to determine the distribution of students among the funding categories,” Ringera added.
Furthermore, the head of the Loans Board mentioned that if they do not receive a satisfactory number of applications, the government will extend the application deadline beyond September 7th.
“We have made provisions that if, by September 7th, we have not received the expected 265,000 applications or thereabouts, we will certainly extend the deadline,” Ringera stated.
Under the new funding model, students seeking financial aid are divided into four groups based on their level of need: vulnerable, extremely needy, needy, and less needy.
Allocation of funds within these categories will be based on an assessment of the students’ family economic background. This approach aims to prioritize students from financially disadvantaged households for scholarships, while those from less needy backgrounds will continue to receive loan financing from HELB, as was the case in the past.
Any student who had not applied for financial assistance under the previous funding model will need to use the new platform to apply for funding.
Students to know their scholarship category next week
