By Annet Nakanwagi,
KAMPALA
UPC has asked the government and public universities to work out modalities to temporarily employ graduates on loan scheme to enable them service their loans.
The demand follow recent report by the Higher Education Students Financing Board in which it announced that they were not going recruit new students to benefit from the loan scheme due to lack of funding. The board acting ED Christopher Birungi in April told the Parliamentary on Education and Sports that they were seeking for Shs34.5billion for the this financial year (2023/24) to support students on loan scheme.
The deputy speaker of parliament, Rt Hon Thomas Tayebwa recently shocked the country when he said he had reports that some universities are withholding transcripts of students who studied on government loan scheme under Higher Education Students’ Financing Board (HESFB) on grounds that the Government has faulted on remitting tuition for the students as per the Memorandum of Understanding between the two parties (Government and Universities)
UPC however, says it is unfair to target the direct beneficiaries to recover funds majority of whom are from vulnerable families.
“The only way they are expected to service the loan is to pick the transcripts and search for jobs. However when transcripts are withheld, it becomes very hard to compete for the increasingly scarce jobs in the labour market,” Arach said
