About 12,000 students, who applied online for the scholarship and underwent an online aptitude test are being interviewed in the Northern region.
The successful students will be awarded scholarships for the 2020/21 academic year.
This is the third phase of the local tertiary scholarship decentralisation initiative introduced by the government to ensure affordability, whilst increasing access to tertiary education.
A panel of seven members comprising a representative each of the District Chief Executive, a Chief, a tertiary institution, District Directorate of Education, the Member of Parliament of the area, and two persons from the Scholarship Secretariat, is undertaking the week-long exercise at all the MMDAs.
Speaking to the Media in Tamale, the Registrar of Scholarships said interview panel would grill the applicants in four thematic areas, which include motivation and comprehension, current affairs, aptitude test, and prior learning, and score them using an online platform to ensure transparency.
He added that the interviews are concurrently in the other District Assemblies by 15 other teams.
The scholarship, he said will cover expenses on the candidate’s academic facility user fee or tuition fee and can be renewed by uploading one’s academic transcript.
He emphasized that the entire process was primarily an objective one and nothing could be done to favour a candidate.
“This is a very objective test to increase transparency” He said.
Meanwhile, government has allocated ¢80,000,000 to cater for the academic user facility fees of all successful applicants, which covered certificate cases, diplomas, undergraduate, and graduate programmes.