Free university education: UG to roll out medical and engineering regional seats as applications surge

President Dr Irfaan Ali on Tuesday announced that the University of Guyana (UG) will be expanding its programmes into multiple regions in response to a surge in applications following the introduction of free university education.
The Head of State noted that applications at UG have doubled, with medicine and engineering seeing the sharpest increases. To meet this demand, the Government has begun creating additional seats outside of the Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown campus.
In medicine, 30 seats will be rolled out this year at the New Amsterdam Regional Hospital in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne). President Ali explained that academic staff have already been identified, and assessments are underway to ensure labs, equipment, and IT systems are in place. Once the new hospital in the region is completed, capacity will be expanded further. Additional medical programmes are also being assessed in Regions Two, Three, and Nine.
“So just for context,” Ali explained, “we had 418 applications in medicine; more than 130 were qualified, but only 16 seats were available. With investments, Turkeyen now has 110 seats, and Region Six will add 30 more, giving us 140 seats to meet the needs of all qualified applicants.”
“In Region Three [Essequibo Islands-West Demerara], we have identified the teaching space, and, as I speak to you, gap analysis in terms of lab and staff required to support the seats in medicine in Region Six is being conducted to operationalise more seats in medicine in Region Three before the end of the year,” the President added.
Meanwhile, in engineering, all applicants in mechanical engineering will be accommodated, while civil engineering, where 241 students have already been admitted, will see 90 new seats created across Regions Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), and Six (East Berbice-Corentyne). Each region will receive 30 seats.
According to President Ali, the regional expansion will allow students to pursue higher education closer to home, reduce transportation costs, and enable them to make more productive use of their time.
“So that would allow students to study closer to home, in a more comfortable environment, and of course reduce their costs of transport and make more productive use of their time. This is about ensuring equitable access to education and preparing Guyanese in critical fields for the country’s development,” Ali stated.
The Government’s policy of providing free university education will be fully implemented from the 2025/2026 academic year at the University of Guyana (UG), which is set to commence in about a week.
This means that all tuition fees for diploma, bachelor’s, master’s, and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) programmes will be waived for both new and continuing students.
In excess of 11,000 current students of UG are set to benefit from this measure along with all future entrants. The initiative, which follows a commitment by President Dr Irfaan Ali and Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo to make tertiary education more accessible to all Guyanese, particularly those from low- and middle-income households, will cost the treasury some $18 billion.
The measure took effect from January 1, 2025, and is seen as a transformative step toward building a highly skilled, inclusive, and resilient workforce.