Free university education: First to benefit will be preexisting loan students – Pres Ali

The Government’s plan to provide Guyanese with free University of Guyana (UG) education by 2025, will be rolled out in phases… starting with students who have pre-existing loans.
In a broadcast interview with another section of the media, President Dr. Irfaan Ali spoke about the government’s plans for free tertiary education… a 2020 manifesto promise. He noted that existing loan students will have to be addressed first.
“We’ve said already we have to move to free university education… it’s going to be an approach that commences the implementation of free education. As you know there are persons who are already on the register, paying loans. So, I think that segment of the student population will have to be addressed first. And then we phase ourselves in,” the President said.
In 2016, a forensic audit into the operations of the UG Student Loan Agency had revealed that over a 21-year period, successive PPP/C Governments made available to the agency over $9 billion for loans.
During the period 1994 to May 2015, the Government of Guyana approved $9,489,453,973 through the National Budget or US$45.5 million (using the current rate of exchange of G$210 to US$1), the 77-page audit report, which was made public on Tuesday by the Finance Ministry stated.
The report stated that during the period April 2011 to December 2014, $1.8 billion was received through a process whereby the Agency’s head was informed by the Budget Department that funds had been approved to be released to the Agency.

Online academy
Meanwhile, the President also spoke about the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) scholarship programme, which has seen the Government partnering with educational institutions around the world to offer courses that will meet the challenges and demands of various sectors in Guyana, including the oil and gas, engineering and construction, and information security sectors. According to the President, the anticipated influx of higher qualified persons into the workforce will create conditions in the public and private sector that have to be addressed.
“We’ve already given 20,000 scholarships under the GOAL programme. Now that will have a major cost. And also, that will take more people into the university system,” the President said during the interview.
“More people coming out with degrees. More people entering (the workforce) at a higher level, which requires higher salaries. And that is both a public and private sector issue we will have to confront.”
The Government has already distributed over 20,000 online scholarships through GOAL. The 20,000 online scholarships programme is also the fulfilment of a pledge made to provide opportunities for educational development nationwide. Within the first year of its launch over 8000 citizens applied for the free online programme.
While the government had originally intended to make 20,000 of the online scholarships available, this target has since been revised owing to the overwhelming interest shown by citizens.
GOAL is set to offer 187 programmes that can be accessed from 15 reputable academic institutions across the world, including in India, Africa, the United Kingdom and Germany. The programmes, which are being financed by the Government, range from certificate to PhD level. The sum of $1.3 billion was approved for GOAL in Budget 2022. (G3)