Government has awarded a total of 1,834 students study loans under the Students Loan Scheme for the 2019/2020 academic year. Among those awarded, 1,216 are male representing 66 percent.
Announcing the results on state Ugandan Media Centre on Tuesday, State Minister for Higher Education Dr John Chrysostom Muyingo told reporters that funding of the student loans fund would increase for higher learning institutions.
He also said more funds was allocated to the Higher Education Students Financing Board.
"The Government of Uganda over the years has been increasing the budget of the board. In the financial year 2019/20, Government allocated an additional resource of sh2.4b, bringing the total budget to sh30.182b and this has enabled the board to award loans to 1,834 students," said the minister.
The board's chairperson, Prof. Callisto Locheng, thanked the Government, education ministry and stakeholders for the support to increase access to higher education in the country.
Muyingo said for the academic year 2019/2020, the board received 7,310 applications, and of the processed 4,726 forms, 895 wanted support to pursue diploma programmes.
"Here, 370 have been awarded loans, of which 249 are male. Some of those who missed out on the loans failed to beat the deadline while others submitted incomplete application forms," he said.
Other hopefuls were rejected because of unaccredited programmes, unapproved higher education institutions by the board as well as unapproved programmes by the board.
Generally, Makerere University had the most number of successful applicants (327). Kyambogo University (294), Bishop Stuart University (181), Mbarara University of Science & Technology (174), Busitema University (139) and Ndejje University (126) also ranked high.
Below is the list the number of successful applicants by the institution:
Header Image: Makerere Website