- The application deadline is set to be on September 7 .
- Ringera said the deadline could be extended if few applications are made.
Image: FILE
With the September 7 application deadline drawing closer, only 23 per cent of students who had secured placement in degree, diploma, and arts courses have applied for university funding on the Higher Education Funding (HEF) website.
In an interview with the Star on Tuesday, Higher Education Loans Board (Helb) CEO Charles Ringera revealed that the applications received have not yet reached the 100,000 mark.
"For planning purposes, we require the critical mass of students to have applied... As of now, we have received 65,000 applications and we're seeing an input of 10,000," Ringera said.
Ringera further revealed that applicants will be notified of the funding group they have been placed under once the government receives a minimum of 100,000 applications.
"By next week the number (of students placed in various funding groups) will already be known as we will have reached 100,000 applications," Ringera added.
The Loans Board boss additionally stated that the government will postpone the deadline for receiving applications if they fail to receive a satisfactory number of applications.
"We've made arrangements that if by September 7 we'll not have received the entire 265,000 applications or thereabout, then definitely we will be extending the deadline," Ringera said.
Under the new funding model, the government has classified students seeking funding into four categories, the vulnerable, extremely needy, needy and less needy.
Funding across the four categories will be determined by evaluating family economic background to ensure that students from poor households are given priority in terms of scholarship allocation while those from less needy households are covered by loan financing from HELB as has been in the past.
Any student who before the introduction of this new funding model had not applied for financing will be required to apply through the new platform.