President says UG student loans question will be resolved

President Donald Ramotar on Friday said government will resolve the UG student loans question by or before the commencement of the 2014/2015 academic year.

On Wednesday, Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh had said that Cabinet is yet to make a decision on whether government will provide sufficient loans to absorb the increased tuition and facilities fees students are now required to pay. The matter, he said, continues to attract the attention of Cabinet.

Vice-Chancellor (VC) of the University of Guyana (UG) Jacob Opadeyi on Monday said that the university could shut down by the second week of the first semester if enough students are not able to source loans to pay their tuition and other fees. Elaborating, he said the university would comb through its programmes to identify and possibly discontinue programmes that do not have the required number of subscribers. UG’s Art and History programmes are not usually heavily subscribed to and therefore fall into this bracket.

Ramotar however, said at a press conference at the Office of the President that government will not allow the students