Prove you can pay or you can't stay
Published:Tuesday | August 17, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Daraine Luton, Senior Staff Reporter
RETIRED GOVERNOR general and former University of the West Indies (UWI) principal, Sir Kenneth Hall, has suggested that Jamaican tertiary institutions might soon need to consider whether students can afford higher education before they are admitted.
"In future, Jamaican institutions, like their counterparts in some countries, will be forced to include capacity to pay as a significant part of the admissions decisions," Hall wrote in a recent edition of the Business Review, a publication of the Mona School of Business.
At present, students admitted to Jamaican universities are not required to prove how they intend to pay for their studies.
But Hall has suggested that this could change, arguing that institutions might consider granting spaces to pupils, only if they have met financial criteria.
The retired UWI principal said Jamaican colleges and universities will be expected to "continue to expand programme access and reduce inequality by ensuring that every student is provided for adequately.
"This, in turn, will require that the university expand access opportunities by obtaining more scholarships for students and making payment of fees feasible through targeted and structured payment plans," Hall contended in the publication.
He argued that the "time might be approaching when the state links its funding to output and performance measures that are consistent with national goals of reducing poverty and inequality, expanding access to quality education and preparing the workforce for the knowledge economy."
Andrew Holness, minister of education, said Hall's position was a recognition that the current model was not sustainable.
He, however, said the Government does not want a person's capacity to pay to figure in whether a student is accepted.
"The Government's position is that the only criteria for acceptance should be the academic-matriculation requirement," Holness said.
Meantime, Senator Basil Waite, opposition spokesman on education, said it would be unwise to discriminate against people because they cannot afford tertiary education.
"We cannot leave it to the market to determine whether people get access to education. It cannot be just about capacity to pay. The Government has a responsibility because of the public-good component inherent in tertiary education," Waite told The Gleaner yesterday.
The Government has long signalled its intent to link the award of student loans to certain critical sectors. Last April, Prime Minister Bruce Golding told Parliament Government would "have to influence" the direction of student-loan funds.
"We are going to offer preferential terms for those areas of study that we feel are in national demand, and we are also going to improve access to those funds," the prime minister said.
Golding has since gone silent on that promise, failing to disclose the areas of study that would be encouraged by way of lower interest rates from the Students' Loan Bureau.
Delinquency
The prime minister told Parliament the rate of delinquency on SLB loans was due mainly to students leaving universities and being unable to find employment.
"The Students' Loan Bureau is faced with a dilemma. They are financing studies for students, many of whom, having qualified, are unable to find employment and, therefore, are unable to pay back the money, and they become the subject of some persistent pressure from the Students' Loan Bureau to pay back," Golding said.
Meanwhile, Hall has said the private sector in Jamaica should be encouraged to establish affordable financial instruments to enable prospective students and their parents to fund their education.
"The philanthropic contributions that have already been made in the form of scholarships, grants and contracts for services, should be vastly expanded," Hall said.