Ministry of Higher Education has announced 393 students will receive higher education loans under this year’s Higher Education Loan Scheme.
Disclosing the interim results of the higher education loan applications for this year, Minister of Higher Education Dr. Ibrahim Hassan revealed 720 loan opportunities were opened this year, and 1,000 applications were received for the loans. The minister revealed 393 students were able to secure the loans, based on eligibility criteria and the slots opened for each field. He added many applicants missed out on the loans due to large number of applications to the same field, noting loans cannot be awarded in exclusively large numbers to one field.
As a general rule, the higher education ministry did not award loans this year for fields where local programmes are available. However, loans were awarded in some fields such as medicine and pilot studies under a special exemption. As such, the ministry revealed 250 individuals applied for the 10 slots opened for pilot studies, while 129 individuals applied for the 25 slots reserved for medicine.
In addition to providing higher education loans to study abroad, the government is also providing the opportunity to undertake first degree studies locally for free under the First Degree Grant Scheme introduced in 2019. A large number of students are enrolled in this programme