By Staff Writer
The Higher Education Loans and Scholarships Board (HELSB) has awarded additional student loans to 2,780 first year students at the University of Zambia for the 2021/2022 academic year.
HELSB Senior Corporate Communications Officer Chiselwa Kawanda said this entails that for the first time, over 5,000 first year students have been awarded student loans in one university in one academic year.
Ms Kawanda said the award of the additional student loans has been made possible because HELSB received additional funds sourced by the Minister of Education, Douglas Syakalima, from the Ministry of Finance and National Planning.
She said in awarding the additional student loans, the 40 percent merit, 30 percent rural affirmative and 30 percent female affirmative criterion was used.
Ms Kawanda said all applicants living with disability were awarded in the first selection.
The award of the additional student loans is distributed as 1,260 (45%) Rural, 1,520 (55%) Urban, 1,753 (63%) Male, 1,027 (37%) Female, 1,782 (64%) Science based programs and 998 (36%) Art based programs.
