GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) – The Guyana government Wednesday said it would provide funding for students loans following the decision by the University of Guyana (UG) to increase tuition fees.
Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh said Cabinet had discussed the issue “exhaustively and decided that student loans will be granted to cover the new tuition fees”.
He said as had been the case before, the loans granted to finance tuition fees will not include the facilities fee which has historically been paid by students.
Singh said he had already issued the necessary directive for the Student Loan Agency to commence processing loan applications immediately for the coming academic year and that the Donald Ramotar administration was ensuring that no Guyanese student would be denied access to university education because of affordability.
He said the increased revenue for the UG provides the tertiary institution with an important opportunity to make the necessary changes to ensure better effectiveness in its operations.
“The University needs to make a more concerted effort to streamline its operations to ensure value for money, more prudent management, and a sustained higher quality of teaching and research output,” he added.
But Singh said the government was equally concerned at the poor rate of repayment of loans previously granted to students and urged increased voluntary compliance, even as government considers options for strengthening enforcement to raise repayment rates.
Singh said that the ideal option would be for persons to act responsibly and repay previous loans they were granted voluntarily without any stringent enforcement measures having to be applied.
