STEM scholarships take centre stage with projected $4.9b in SLB disbursements
Published:Saturday | February 17, 2024 | 12:08 AMEdmond Campbell/Senior Parliamentary Reporter
The Students’ Loan Bureau (SLB) is projecting a surplus of more than $2.22 billion before taxation for the 2024-2025 financial year.
The projected surplus for the upcoming financial year represents a marginal increase over the $2.2 billion the institution is expected to pull in for the 2023-2024 fiscal year, which ends in March.
For the upcoming financial year, which begins in April, the SLB projects disbursements of $4.9 billion.
In the current fiscal year, it is expected to disburse $7.2 billion. However, the sum includes arrears of approximately $3.55 billion, which is to be paid to the institutions by the end of the 2023-2024 financial year.
Under the Government’s science, technology, energy and mathematics (STEM) scholarships programme, the SLB has earmarked $1 billion for disbursement in the new financial year.
To date, the SLB says it has disbursed $220 million to approximately 366 beneficiaries – 207 students from the Mico University College and 159 from the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech).
ELIGIBILITY
Last year, the Government introduced a STEM scholarship programme in collaboration with the SLB. As part of the programme, new students enrolling at UTech and the Mico, starting in September 2023, were eligible for scholarships.
The Government has indicated that the programme is designed to improve human capacity development in STEM studies at the tertiary level attracting, and maintaining qualified and high-potential graduates, and strengthening tertiary training capacity to develop an adequate supply of STEM graduates.
The programme is targeting 1,000 graduates over five cohorts, according to the Jamaica Public Bodies which sets out the budgetary allocations to public bodies. The document was tabled in Parliament on Tuesday.
At present, the SLB provides funding through three loan products. They are the targeted loans, pay-as-you-study loans, and postgraduate loans. The targeted loans comprise roughly 99 per cent of the loan portfolio, with beneficiaries being given an extended moratorium period before repayment.
The SLB says its other two loan products do not have the moratorium feature and are earmarked for growing the entity’s portfolio.
The lending agency provides funding support to various programmes of study, including business administration and social sciences, sciences, nursing, pharmacology, education, humanities, agriculture, engineering, information technology, hospitality and tourism management, law, maritime, medicine, sports education, and theology.