Govt to support 1,619 students in 2019 academic year at CBU

Higher Education Minister, Nkandu Luo says Government will in the 2019 academic year only support 1,619 students with government loans at the Copperbelt University.

Professor Luo has told Parliament in a ministerial statement that this against a total of 3,956 prospective students that had applied for government loans sponsorship.

She has attributed the reduction in the number students to be supported to the increase in tuition fees by the two higher learning institutions namely the University of Zambia and the Copperbelt belt University which she says is justifiable.

Professor Luo explains that in order to ensure fairness in the distribution of the slots for the loans, the loans board used a stringent criteria which saw about 450 places given to rural based applicants, another 450 were female students while 719 were given on merit to students that got the best grade 12 results.

The Minister has further said that government has returned the same budget for the loans to students despite the austerity measures government has put in place and the increase in tuition fees by the two universities.

She has expressed HOPE that once the loans recovery process is strengthened, more students will be able to benefit from the loans.