President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has stated higher education opportunities have been provided to 15,000 students under the Free First Degree Programme of the government.
In a tweet, President Solih revealed that15,000 students have enrolled and are now studying under the Free First Degree Programme, reiterating the aim of the government is to produce a generation of well rounded, highly educated young people who can contribute meaningfully to nation building.
The programme to facilitate students to acquire bachelor’s degrees locally free of charge was initiated by the administration on February 14, 2019. As per statistics, 4,804 students used the opportunity when the programme was first started in 2019. By 2020, 4,818 students were enrolled in the programme with a further 3,301 students enrolled in 2021. Additionally, 2,077 students have been enrolled in the programme so far this year.
Minister of Higher Education Dr. Ibrahim Hassan said the initiative has facilitated every student with equal opportunities for higher studies. Under the government policy, opportunities are given for students from the two largest universities in the Maldives, the Maldives National University (MNU) and the Islamic University of the Maldives (IUM). In addition, private colleges are also offering a certain percentage of courses for free as part of the programme.