The Higher Education Students’ Financing Board (HESFB) has said the Board will not receive applications for student loans for the academic year 2023/2024.
In a statement dated July 6, 2023, the Board attributed the decision to ‘budgetary shortfalls.”
“The Board will continue to facilitate in-study Loan scheme beneficiaries while engaging all stakeholders in resource mobilisation to resume supporting new cohorts of student loans in the FY 2024/25,” reads part of the press statement issued by the Board Executive Director, Michael Wanyama.
Since 2014, the Board has been implementing the Students’ Loan Scheme in a bid to increase access to Higher Education and support highly qualified Uganda students who may not afford Higher Education.
So far, the Board has supported 13, 405 beneficiaries (11, 393 Undergraduate degrees and 2, 012 undergraduate diplomas) to study 130 undergraduate degrees and 76 undergraduate diploma programmes mainly in Science, Technology and Engineering and Math (STEM), except for learners with Special Needs who can access study loans to pursue all programmes of their choice including all humanities programme.
These programmes are currently tenable at 22 chartered universities (10 public and 12 private chartered universities) and 36 other tertiary institutions in Uganda.
