Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
The Higher Education Loans and Scholarships Board has awarded additional student loans to 2,780 first year students at the University of Zambia for the 2021-2022 Academic Year.
Board Senior Corporate Communications Officer, Chiselwa Kawanda says this entails that for the first time, over 5,000 first year students have been awarded student loans in one university in one academic year.
Ms Kawanda says the award of the additional student loans has been made possible because Higher Education Loans and Scholarships Board received additional funds sourced by the minister of Education, Douglas Syakalima, from the Ministry of Finance and National Planning.
She has explained that in awarding the additional student loans, the 40 percent merit, 30 percent rural affirmative and 30 percent female affirmative criterion was used.
Ms. Kawanda says all applicants living with disability were awarded in the first selection.
She says the board received an overwhelming response of 10,682 applications and of the total number received, 10,307 applicants were eligible for the award of student loans