Ministry of Higher Education confirmed on Tuesday, that students on scholarships, under student loans and undergraduates enrolled in any of the ministry’s various educational schemes, would continue to receive financial support as previously scheduled.
According to a statement released by the ministry, payments were released last week to 1148 undergraduates enrolled in the ministry’s first-degree scheme.
The statement comes at a time when the government has closed its offices in the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic, as a social distancing measure to prevent the spread of the virus within the community.
Nevertheless, the ministry assured that the ongoing work to provide financing for these students would continue to proceed as business as usual.
As per ministry regulations, undergraduates due to receive funding under the ministry’s first-degree scheme are scheduled to receive their annual semester fees in two separate payments, twice a year.
As the academic year begins and ends on varying dates for most course programmes run by different universities and colleges, for payment purposes, the ministry calculates each academic period starting from the date on which an individual’s programme commences.
For a programme beginning in April 2019, the ministry would determine the end to be in March the following year. Therefore, the initial payment for the second year of studies would be deposited in 2020 between March and April, while the second payment must be made six months after, between September and October.
Advising all students to exercise caution when handling the payments, the ministry further iterated that they would continue making payments directly to the student, and not to the university or college the student is enrolled in. The ministry also emphasised that hence, the responsibility to ensure the institution is paid in full and on time lies with each respective student.
Pointing to ongoing work to establish an online portal for issuing payments for students, the ministry had earlier called on students to submit hard copies of applications to partake in the online payment scheme, and recently as well, to register at their portal on www.myedu.egov.mv
Noting that a number of students had as yet failed to do so, the ministry urged all remaining students to apply and register as soon as possible, as it is set to become a required step in receiving all future payments.
If students that had earlier submitted applications found their status to read ‘Application Incomplete’ upon logging in to the portal, the ministry stressed on the importance of filling in the missing information and amending any errors to avoid delays with future payments.
As a move to fulfil one of the key electoral pledges on education made by incumbent President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih’s administration, a total of 6000 undergraduate students were registered in first degree programmes under state funding schemes launched in 2019, the cost of which is estimated to total at MVR 96.8 million.