Minister of Higher Education Dr. Ibrahim Hassan has stated the administrative issues in paying directly to the students under the First-Degree Grant Scheme have been resolved.
The higher education minister made the remarks at a time when collecting applications for the degree scheme is on halt due to administrative issues in releasing fees for students. The higher education minister said students can now resume submitting fund request forms, ensuring the requests will be processed within the informed duration.
Ministry of Higher Education launched a free degree programme for students who wish to complete undergraduate programmes from colleges and universities in Maldives. Initially, the higher education ministry directly deposited tuition fees to colleges and universities. However, noting delays in receiving invoices from the colleges and universities under the mechanism, the ministry decided to provide tuition fees directly to students instead of releasing the funds to the colleges and universities.
Minister Dr. Ibrahim Hassan stated the decision to provide tuition fees directly to students was made to ease the difficulties faced by the ministry as well as the students. The minister said under the new arrangements, prior to each semester, fees will be deposited to bank accounts once the ministry receive relevant documents.
The higher education ministry has revealed more than USD 1.5 million has been spent to provide free undergraduate degree programmes, with more than 5,600 students having taken the opportunity to pursue degrees for free. The free degree programme is expected to cost the state a total of more than USD 10 million annually.
The programme pays the total course fees of undergraduate students studying at the Maldives National University (MNU) and Islamic University of Maldives (IUM), while 40-60% of the tuition fees of students pursuing undergraduate degree programmes in private institutions are paid for by the government.
The administration has also recently reduced the interest rates of the student loans and increased the payback period to make it more affordable for all students.