Condition for Help

HIGHER Education acting-secretary Dr Francis Hualupmomi says tertiary students seeking assistance from the higher education loan programme (Help) must pay a compulsory fee to be eligible for assistance.
Hualupmomi said this was part of the Government support to tertiary students but parents had to play their part by paying compulsory fees to the institutions.
He added that the fees were set by the institutions and universities according to their budgets and not the department.
“We are only paying for the Help and Tesas (Tertiary Education Study Assistance Scheme) and we don’t do the selection or set the fees for students,” he said.
Hualupmomi said students needed to enroll at the institutions first before they could apply for the loan.
He said, last year, K27.4 million was paid through the Help assistance and that amount was expected to increase this year.
He said Help funding would be repaid by the student once he or she was employed as per the agreement they signed to acquire the funding.
Hualupmomi said in this way the Help assistance would eventually be self-sustaining as graduates worked to pay off their student debt.
He said registration continued for tertiary students and the Department of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology was yet to confirm the total number of students who would get Help this year.